This article was originally published on June 20th, 2007 at americanchronicle.com
Do you remember the story of Robin Hood? He was a hero to nearly every child. Why was he a hero? Remember he stole from the rich to give to the poor? We were always taught that stealing is wrong. What would make it right to steal from a merchant who had made his fortune honestly? Nothing. Ah, but we all know that’s not what Robin Hood was really about. He wasn’t about stealing from just any old rich guy and giving to just any poor person. Remember, he was an aristocrat before he turned to his life of crime. No, he was about fighting injustice. He was about stealing from the evil Prince John and his enforcer, the Sheriff of Nottingham, and giving to the down trodden citizens who had worked hard to try to make ends meet. He was about taking back the taxes that the government of the day had stolen and giving it back to the people who had rightfully earned the money. He didn’t steal from the rich and give to the poor, he recovered stolen treasure and returned it to the rightful owners.
In the early part of the twentieth century prohibition proved a boon for crime. Criminal gangs found that selling illegal alcohol to speakeasies and other establishments that catered to the populace’s demand for the intoxicating beverages was extremely lucrative. The money they got from this illegal venture gave them power. They were able to pay off the police, politicians and others involved in the legal system so they could keep and protect their territories. They used the force of the gun to keep other criminal gangs away so that they had a monopoly. Anyone that wanted the illegal goods would have to pay the price the gang demanded. They were also able to diversify into other services that there was a public demand for. They became involved in gambling and prostitution. They also began to shake down honest businessmen located in their neighborhoods. They would maybe scare them a little by breaking some windows or robbing them a couple of times, then offer them “protection” for a small service fee. Some businessmen resisted. They refused to give their honest, hard earned income to a gang of thieves. Some of these businessmen ended up dead to serve as a warning to others.
Which of the two above examples does the federal government of the United States of America remind you of? Some might believe them to be like Robin Hood, taxing the rich to give to the poor. I don’t see that happening. I’m not rich. I'm an honest, hard working man. I doubt very much that Robin Hood would rob from me. If he did, he wouldn’t get much. It seems to me that the federal government is robbing from everyone and keeping it for themselves. I’m guessing that if Robin Hood were around today he’d be robbing from the Federal Reserve and giving American citizens back the money which was taken from them. No, the federal government seems much more like the second example. They take money by force from the citizenry consisting of both businessmen and laborers to “protect” them from many perceived threats. If someone wants to keep their hard earned money for themselves and refuse to give it to the feds, the feds will try to “reason” with them through the justice system. If they still refuse to pay they will be threatened with kidnapping and forced imprisonment. If they resist this action and try to protect themselves, there is a good chance they will end up dead. If organized crime does that it’s called extortion which there are laws against. If the federal government does it it’s called collecting taxes.
There’s been a movie going around called “America, Freedom to Fascism” by Aaron Russo. It’s an interesting movie. In it, Aaron goes around asking to be shown the law that says one has to pay income taxes. Authorities are tested when trying to find such a law. Example after example are given in which the law is not found. He even documents an Illinois court case where a man is exonerated on tax evasion charges by a jury of his peers because the prosecutor refuses to show them the law that states one has to pay income taxes. This is all very interesting, but I say “so what?” Even if there is no law, what’s to keep them from writing such a law? It doesn’t matter. What does matter is that there should be no law, and there should be no income taxes collected. Extortion is extortion and should not be legalized. Bad law is bad law. A rose by any other name. If anyone is ever brought to trail for breaking such a bad law, the jury should find him not guilty. This is because juries do have the right to judge the law, no matter what those people running the legal system would have you believe. This is where the true power of the people lies, in judging such laws to be bad laws. All one has to do, one informed juror, is find anyone being tried for not paying income taxes not guilty. Such jury nullification is what brought about the end to prohibition. If this happens enough, those in power will figure it out and these taxes will be done away with. Neither money nor private property should be taken from people by force. If the federal government provides such great services then taxes should be voluntary.
Today, there is a brave couple in New Hampshire who are under siege. Their names are Ed and Elaine Brown. They have already lost their businesses to the feds for refusing to give them their protection money. They had a trail but were not allowed to present their defenses to a jury, therefore they stayed away from the courthouse and were found guilty in absentia. Now their housee is under constant surveillance by federal agents. They are trapped in their home and awaiting the next move from the feds. They are ready to die. These people have done nothing to harm another, nor did they steal the private property of another. They just wanted to keep the money they earned honestly. They just wanted to present one of a variety of defenses during their trail. They just wanted to be shown a law that said they were required to pay income taxes. They were not allowed to do any of those reasonable things. They should simply be left alone.
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Building the Prison Planet
This article was originally published on June 18th, 2007 at americanchronicle.com
Ok, I admit it, I love Star Trek. I was only a little kid when it first came out. I used to watch it all the time. I’ve probably seen each episode two or three times. Even though it took place in the future, often times the show’s themes were pertinent to events taking place in the present. Other times the show was a vehicle for poignant social commentary. Take, for example, the pilot episodes. In them, Captain Pike (Captain Kirk was actually not the original captain of the starship Enterprise) is kept caged on a planet where he is forced to help play out in the fantasies of a beautiful woman. Even though his life in this place is pleasant, he struggles to escape. Toward the end of the episode, the aliens who have imprisoned Captain Pike gain access to mankind’s history. They are astounded to find out that humans have always abhorred forced imprisonment and slavery no matter how pleasant the circumstances. I don’t know if that’s so true anymore. As time moves on and technology advances, it seems to me that we are moving closer and closer to a societal prison of our own making and our own enslavement.
The operative word in the above story and the concept we must worry about is force. No one likes to be forced to do anything, or so one would think. This country was founded on principles that force should not be used against an individual so long as he is not harming or stealing from another. The founders of this country left us with a legacy called the bill of rights, the first ten amendments of the constitution which guarantee recognition of certain rights to each individual and act as a blueprint as to how the government can act toward those individuals. Without these rights we quickly become slaves, or at least we suffer from a form of slavery. As we lose our rights we are effectively being told what we can and can’t do, what we can and can’t think. As each of these rights is dissolved we migrate closer to imprisoning ourselves in our own country. Big brother is creeping more and more into our lives, monitoring our every movement, yet we say nothing for fear we will lose the comforts we have achieved. We let the police state take over in hope for a bit of security and begin to feel a creeping disquiet as more and more dissenters are charged with crimes and thrown into jail cells. Still, the majority remain quiet. Still, we seem to accept our slavery so long as it comes with a warm place to stay, a hot meal, and a glowing TV.
Where is this heading? How can this be turned around? Many of our fellow citizens will answer that we need this law passed or that regulation enforced. Some will blame immigration and others will blame corporations. Some will say we need more Democrats in power, or a Democrat for president, others will say it is the Republicans who will act as our saviors. What many people seem to fail to realize is that government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem. It’s the government that’s creating the trap we’re in. More of the same will only create more of the same. It’s time for us to try less government. It’s time for us to say no to more laws and regulations. It’s time to give more individual freedom a chance to succeed. If this is to happen, then people need to get involved.
Government is like a cancer. If it goes untreated and remains unchecked, it will grow its tentacles into all our systems. If you ignore it, it will consume you. In order to cure it, the patient most become involved in the cure at some level. He most at least acknowledge its existence. The people of this country need to stop being so apathetic. They need to activate themselves and become involved, even it it’s only a little bit. Talk to people. Let your feelings be known. Stop listening to and trusting propaganda and start researching a little bit on your own. What you find out may astound and amaze you. A little activism from a lot of people can go a long way. If the government realizes that the masses do care, and that they’re willing to do something about it, then it will start to shrink, it will start to relinquish its power, and it will return to the fundamentals set up for us by the founding fathers. If we continue to do nothing, to ignore the cancer and to maintain the status quo, I shudder to think of what may be in store for us.
Ok, I admit it, I love Star Trek. I was only a little kid when it first came out. I used to watch it all the time. I’ve probably seen each episode two or three times. Even though it took place in the future, often times the show’s themes were pertinent to events taking place in the present. Other times the show was a vehicle for poignant social commentary. Take, for example, the pilot episodes. In them, Captain Pike (Captain Kirk was actually not the original captain of the starship Enterprise) is kept caged on a planet where he is forced to help play out in the fantasies of a beautiful woman. Even though his life in this place is pleasant, he struggles to escape. Toward the end of the episode, the aliens who have imprisoned Captain Pike gain access to mankind’s history. They are astounded to find out that humans have always abhorred forced imprisonment and slavery no matter how pleasant the circumstances. I don’t know if that’s so true anymore. As time moves on and technology advances, it seems to me that we are moving closer and closer to a societal prison of our own making and our own enslavement.
The operative word in the above story and the concept we must worry about is force. No one likes to be forced to do anything, or so one would think. This country was founded on principles that force should not be used against an individual so long as he is not harming or stealing from another. The founders of this country left us with a legacy called the bill of rights, the first ten amendments of the constitution which guarantee recognition of certain rights to each individual and act as a blueprint as to how the government can act toward those individuals. Without these rights we quickly become slaves, or at least we suffer from a form of slavery. As we lose our rights we are effectively being told what we can and can’t do, what we can and can’t think. As each of these rights is dissolved we migrate closer to imprisoning ourselves in our own country. Big brother is creeping more and more into our lives, monitoring our every movement, yet we say nothing for fear we will lose the comforts we have achieved. We let the police state take over in hope for a bit of security and begin to feel a creeping disquiet as more and more dissenters are charged with crimes and thrown into jail cells. Still, the majority remain quiet. Still, we seem to accept our slavery so long as it comes with a warm place to stay, a hot meal, and a glowing TV.
Where is this heading? How can this be turned around? Many of our fellow citizens will answer that we need this law passed or that regulation enforced. Some will blame immigration and others will blame corporations. Some will say we need more Democrats in power, or a Democrat for president, others will say it is the Republicans who will act as our saviors. What many people seem to fail to realize is that government isn’t the solution, it’s the problem. It’s the government that’s creating the trap we’re in. More of the same will only create more of the same. It’s time for us to try less government. It’s time for us to say no to more laws and regulations. It’s time to give more individual freedom a chance to succeed. If this is to happen, then people need to get involved.
Government is like a cancer. If it goes untreated and remains unchecked, it will grow its tentacles into all our systems. If you ignore it, it will consume you. In order to cure it, the patient most become involved in the cure at some level. He most at least acknowledge its existence. The people of this country need to stop being so apathetic. They need to activate themselves and become involved, even it it’s only a little bit. Talk to people. Let your feelings be known. Stop listening to and trusting propaganda and start researching a little bit on your own. What you find out may astound and amaze you. A little activism from a lot of people can go a long way. If the government realizes that the masses do care, and that they’re willing to do something about it, then it will start to shrink, it will start to relinquish its power, and it will return to the fundamentals set up for us by the founding fathers. If we continue to do nothing, to ignore the cancer and to maintain the status quo, I shudder to think of what may be in store for us.
Ron Paul's Candidacy and the Dream of Freedom
This article was originally published on June 18th, 2007 at americanchronicle.com
I have this dream. I dream that one day I will live in freedom. I dream that I will be able to choose where to spend the money I earn. I dream that I will be able to open a business without having to worry about paying the extortionists for protection. I dream that I will be able to write out my opinion and post it on the Internet without having to worry that some spy for a malicious organization might be “interested” in my work. I dream of living in a country where I don’t have to worry about coming home and finding my computer equipment gone due to legalized, unwarranted theft. I dream of living in a country where I can take responsibility for myself, where I don’t have to worry about some faceless government bureaucrat getting involved in every aspect of my life, from whether or not I have to buckle my seatbelt to what I can and can’t eat when I go out. I dream of a place where I can live out my life being treated like the adult I am. I dream of a mythical place known as America.
Everyday I wake to reality. Every two weeks Caesar takes his pound of flesh from my paycheck. Every year I have to report the money I have earned on the side to the IRS so they can take their cut of my money and spend it on a war I don’t support. Everyday I see stories that reflect the nation’s ills. I read news reports about the war, torture and death. I hardly watch TV news anymore as they seem to only report insignificant stories. They spend too much time reporting on Paris Hilton and American Idol and other celebrities which only serves to distract from what’s really happening in the world. Their talking heads think they can tell me how to think and feel. I used to listen to them, but no more. The cloak of legitimacy they once had has fallen off and I see them now for the propagandists they are. How is it we have come to such a point? Why is it we no longer seem to care about the rights we once cherished so much? How is it we as a people have allowed the government to become so invasive?
The events that have brought us to this point stretch far back into the past, some so far back that anyone who may have witnessed them is no longer alive. There are too many events to name and too many laws have been passed that have chiseled away at our freedoms, some of these laws many have even applauded. Once the events have taken place they are emblazoned upon out collective psyche and sometimes the truth behind such events can become obfuscated. Once the laws are passed they are very seldom repealed. All this history has brought us to this point. While history is an interesting study, it is of little help when trying to change things. A more pertinent question to ask is how do we get ourselves out of this mess we’ve created? How do we restore the rights we once enjoyed?
There are many answers to these questions. One answer is to work through the system. The problem with this has been that the vast majority of Americans seem to think there are only two political parties in the United States and that we must vote for someone in one party or the other or our vote is wasted, as I explained in an earlier article. If everyone who has grown tired of the shenanigans of these two parties were to vote for a Libertarian or other Independent candidate than changes might start to take place. It seems this will never happen because of an irrational fear that most people seem to have that if they vote for a third party their vote will somehow be wasted. This worry need not be of consequence anymore, for there is a candidate who embodies the dream of freedom and is a member of one of the two major parties, the Republican Ron Paul.
Ron Paul is a believer in smaller constitutional government. As a believer in the constitution, he believes in respecting the Bill of Rights which has been largely ignored and trampled by the current administration. Ron Paul would like to restore the integrity of the Bill of Rights and return the government’s respect for it. He voted against the Iraq war. He would like to abolish the IRS. He wants to return our lives to us. He wants to allow us to decide for ourselves how we should run our lives. He wants to take the government out of our personal affairs. Look into Ron Paul for yourselves, look up his voting record, go to Youtube and look up his videos, listen to what he has to say on a variety of issues, you certainly won’t see much of this reported on in the main stream media. They would prefer to ignore him, to have you believe he is a dark horse, a non-contender. Don’t listen to them. Support for Ron Paul continues to grow as his message continues to spread. It is a powerful message. You might not agree with everything he has to say, but his message of peace, liberty, freedom and individual responsibility is a far cry from the message of war, terror, fear and a heavy burden for the American people that comes from the other candidates.
A friend of mine once told me that he felt ten percent of the people were left, ten percent were right and the other eighty percent of us were somewhere in the middle. Ron Paul is the only candidate that shares the views of that eighty percent. He is showing more and more people that they are indeed Libertarian, even though they might not have known it. He has rekindled the dream of freedom to this country. He might not be able to single handedly change the system, but should he win the primary, and should he be elected president in 2008, it would most certainly be a step in the right direction.
I have this dream. I dream that one day I will live in freedom. I dream that I will be able to choose where to spend the money I earn. I dream that I will be able to open a business without having to worry about paying the extortionists for protection. I dream that I will be able to write out my opinion and post it on the Internet without having to worry that some spy for a malicious organization might be “interested” in my work. I dream of living in a country where I don’t have to worry about coming home and finding my computer equipment gone due to legalized, unwarranted theft. I dream of living in a country where I can take responsibility for myself, where I don’t have to worry about some faceless government bureaucrat getting involved in every aspect of my life, from whether or not I have to buckle my seatbelt to what I can and can’t eat when I go out. I dream of a place where I can live out my life being treated like the adult I am. I dream of a mythical place known as America.
Everyday I wake to reality. Every two weeks Caesar takes his pound of flesh from my paycheck. Every year I have to report the money I have earned on the side to the IRS so they can take their cut of my money and spend it on a war I don’t support. Everyday I see stories that reflect the nation’s ills. I read news reports about the war, torture and death. I hardly watch TV news anymore as they seem to only report insignificant stories. They spend too much time reporting on Paris Hilton and American Idol and other celebrities which only serves to distract from what’s really happening in the world. Their talking heads think they can tell me how to think and feel. I used to listen to them, but no more. The cloak of legitimacy they once had has fallen off and I see them now for the propagandists they are. How is it we have come to such a point? Why is it we no longer seem to care about the rights we once cherished so much? How is it we as a people have allowed the government to become so invasive?
The events that have brought us to this point stretch far back into the past, some so far back that anyone who may have witnessed them is no longer alive. There are too many events to name and too many laws have been passed that have chiseled away at our freedoms, some of these laws many have even applauded. Once the events have taken place they are emblazoned upon out collective psyche and sometimes the truth behind such events can become obfuscated. Once the laws are passed they are very seldom repealed. All this history has brought us to this point. While history is an interesting study, it is of little help when trying to change things. A more pertinent question to ask is how do we get ourselves out of this mess we’ve created? How do we restore the rights we once enjoyed?
There are many answers to these questions. One answer is to work through the system. The problem with this has been that the vast majority of Americans seem to think there are only two political parties in the United States and that we must vote for someone in one party or the other or our vote is wasted, as I explained in an earlier article. If everyone who has grown tired of the shenanigans of these two parties were to vote for a Libertarian or other Independent candidate than changes might start to take place. It seems this will never happen because of an irrational fear that most people seem to have that if they vote for a third party their vote will somehow be wasted. This worry need not be of consequence anymore, for there is a candidate who embodies the dream of freedom and is a member of one of the two major parties, the Republican Ron Paul.
Ron Paul is a believer in smaller constitutional government. As a believer in the constitution, he believes in respecting the Bill of Rights which has been largely ignored and trampled by the current administration. Ron Paul would like to restore the integrity of the Bill of Rights and return the government’s respect for it. He voted against the Iraq war. He would like to abolish the IRS. He wants to return our lives to us. He wants to allow us to decide for ourselves how we should run our lives. He wants to take the government out of our personal affairs. Look into Ron Paul for yourselves, look up his voting record, go to Youtube and look up his videos, listen to what he has to say on a variety of issues, you certainly won’t see much of this reported on in the main stream media. They would prefer to ignore him, to have you believe he is a dark horse, a non-contender. Don’t listen to them. Support for Ron Paul continues to grow as his message continues to spread. It is a powerful message. You might not agree with everything he has to say, but his message of peace, liberty, freedom and individual responsibility is a far cry from the message of war, terror, fear and a heavy burden for the American people that comes from the other candidates.
A friend of mine once told me that he felt ten percent of the people were left, ten percent were right and the other eighty percent of us were somewhere in the middle. Ron Paul is the only candidate that shares the views of that eighty percent. He is showing more and more people that they are indeed Libertarian, even though they might not have known it. He has rekindled the dream of freedom to this country. He might not be able to single handedly change the system, but should he win the primary, and should he be elected president in 2008, it would most certainly be a step in the right direction.
Does Anyone Really Care About Global Warming
This article was initially published on April 16th, 2007 at americanchronicle.com
I watched a documentary the other day called “The Great Global Warming Swindle” from the BBC. The basic premise of the documentary was to show that carbon dioxide is not the main cause of global warming, that the sun’s energy output is, and it is not the threat that certain political interests would have us believe. The science of the documentary seemed sound and I would be hard pressed to argue against the data without more study. Much of what they said I was already aware of. They also showed how Al Gore had misused data to push a political agenda and a world government imposed solution. They discussed how certain scientists were included as authors in a United Nations report on global warming even though they had asked to be removed from the list of authors. They spoke of how they were not being paid by oil interests. It was all very interesting. They stated that there was no doubt climate change existed and that we were in the middle of it, the doubt was in what the main cause is. They gave me little reason to doubt them until near the very end. That’s when their true colors showed. They might not have been paid by oil interests, but they suddenly started advocating coal interests.
They started by appealing to one’s emotions by claiming that the very poor are suffering as a result of the global warming furor. They claimed that cheap sources of electricity were being kept from them through various international agreements. They gave the example of a medical clinic in Africa in the middle of nowhere which was powered using solar power. Their claim was that solar power was more expensive than coal power. They showed this small clinic with a solar panel that could either power its lights with its energy, or power its refrigerator, but not both at once. My first thought was that they needed another solar panel. Actually, they needed a little more than that, but it would have been a start. The documentary’s solution was that they needed to build a coal burning power plant. They said they believed coal was cheaper and more efficient than solar. I have to disagree. There are a few questions I have for those that made this little documentary. The more I hear about global warming, and the more bickering about it that goes on, the more I wonder if it isn’t something meant as a distraction to keep us from exploring and focusing on deeper issues.
How much does coal power really cost? How much does it cost to build a coal plant? How much does it cost to maintain it? How much to transport the coal? How much does it cost to pay the miners to dig the coal? How much does it cost to heal the damage done by strip mining? How many miners around the world have died in coal mining accidents? How much are their lives worth? How many other lives have been adversely affected by their deaths? What is the true environmental cost of burning coal to power our cities? There are more poisons and pollutants being pumped into the atmosphere than the carbon dioxide they are trying to blame for global warming. There’s hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrogen fluoride, heavy metals and other toxic materials. These pollutants enter our atmosphere and rain down upon us contaminating all our ecospheres. The burning of coal for our power is not the answer, no matter how cheap it is. It is not our future. It should not be anyone’s future. The future of our power production is from clean, renewable sources else some unforeseen ecological disaster might sneak up on us and we will have no future. Global warming isn’t the only natural disaster we have to think about.
What is the real cost of solar power? That’s going to depend on your individual energy needs. Once you buy a system, the cost per KW/hr. will go down for every second the system operates without added maintenance cost. After an amount of time determined by energy usage and the cost of energy from the power companies which continues to increase, the renewable system would have paid for itself and the energy from that system is essentially free. Perhaps a more pertinent question would be what is a renewable energy system worth? What is it worth to you to have your complete independence? Imagine never having to pay a monthly fee to a power company again. Should you run into some bad luck and lose your job, you wouldn’t have to worry about them turning off your electricity due to non payment of your bill. If, God forbid, you were to get sick and were unable to work you electricity would be one less thing you’d have to worry about. Money that would have otherwise been going to the electric company can be used to pay medical bills, credit cards, or other monthly bills. You could even take your family out to eat with the money not going to the power company if that were your wish. Has a storm ever come through your neighborhood and knocked out your power? You wouldn’t have to worry about that again if you had a renewable energy system independent of the public grid. And if a storm damages any component of the system, your insurance would replace it. Remember the massive power failure during the summer of 2004? Anyone who had renewable power off the grid had nothing to worry about while some of their neighbors might have sweltered for days. Lastly, let us not forget that illusive terrorist attack. What would happen if terrorists attack the power grid? We are told that nuclear power plants are targets, what if one or more of them are put out of commission? How long would it be until power is restored? Days? Weeks? Months? It wouldn’t matter to you had your own power plant using renewable sources powering your house. Would you rather depend on the power company for your power, or yourself? How much is that worth to you?
The arguments surrounding the causes of climate change have become so obfuscated and convoluted by politics and agendas that it has become difficult to determine if anyone at all involved in the debate truly cares about global warming and its impact on the earth. The billionaire Mr. Richard Branson offers a 25 million dollar prize to anyone who can come up with a machine to remove carbon dioxide from the air while at the same time, according to some sources, planning to build an oil refinery to start his own fuel business he’d call Virgin Oil. He would pay someone 25 million for an invention that does the same thing trees do so that he could make billions more making what should become an obsolete fuel that pumps more carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air. Let’s not even start to talk about the potential ecological hazards inherent in pumping and transporting oil. Wouldn’t it make more sense for a billionaire truly concerned about the environment to invest his money and marketing know how in ecologically safe renewable energy sources like solar and wind? That is where the future lies. Wouldn’t a business man’s money be better spent developing and building zero emissions vehicles that run 100% on renewable electricity or hydrogen? After all, in order to make billions more one has to make sure that billions of people remain on earth to spend their money.
Al Gore’s credibility has also suffered recently. He seems to have made it his mission in life to instill the fear of global warming into every human being on the face of the Earth. He claims to be concerned about the environment and global warming while operating a highly energy inefficient household. His solutions seem to always include tax increases, bigger government oversight, treaties and other convoluted legal mumbo jumbo. Treaties that allow for the selling of pollution quotas leave me wondering if anyone benefits. These types of quasi solutions which pick the pockets of some to enrich others are not the solutions we should be looking at. Leaders such as Mr. Gore should lead be example. He should convert his home to a clean, energy efficient home that meets all its energy needs through the use of green technologies. He certainly has the money to do so and this would be an example for others to follow. If he were to convert his home perhaps others of similar means would also be motivated to convert theirs. This would help raise demand, which would increase supply and the prices would start to fall so that it would soon be within the means of every homeowner to convert. Of course, I don’t expect this to happen overnight, but every little step along the road helps bring us closer to the destination.
Many people believe the answer to global warming lies in legislation. I maintain that the answer lies in the marketplace. Regardless of whether or not man is responsible for global warming, it would behoove us all to start switching over to renewable sources for all our energy needs. If man is contributing to global warming, switching over will help to minimize the impact we have. If we are not contributing, switching over will help us adapt to the changes that are going to occur. And in either case, switching over will help us all become financially independent of the energy behemoths that run our lives now and will help mitigate the ecological effects that burning coal, oil and radioactive materials have on this planet, the only planet we know of that supports life.
I watched a documentary the other day called “The Great Global Warming Swindle” from the BBC. The basic premise of the documentary was to show that carbon dioxide is not the main cause of global warming, that the sun’s energy output is, and it is not the threat that certain political interests would have us believe. The science of the documentary seemed sound and I would be hard pressed to argue against the data without more study. Much of what they said I was already aware of. They also showed how Al Gore had misused data to push a political agenda and a world government imposed solution. They discussed how certain scientists were included as authors in a United Nations report on global warming even though they had asked to be removed from the list of authors. They spoke of how they were not being paid by oil interests. It was all very interesting. They stated that there was no doubt climate change existed and that we were in the middle of it, the doubt was in what the main cause is. They gave me little reason to doubt them until near the very end. That’s when their true colors showed. They might not have been paid by oil interests, but they suddenly started advocating coal interests.
They started by appealing to one’s emotions by claiming that the very poor are suffering as a result of the global warming furor. They claimed that cheap sources of electricity were being kept from them through various international agreements. They gave the example of a medical clinic in Africa in the middle of nowhere which was powered using solar power. Their claim was that solar power was more expensive than coal power. They showed this small clinic with a solar panel that could either power its lights with its energy, or power its refrigerator, but not both at once. My first thought was that they needed another solar panel. Actually, they needed a little more than that, but it would have been a start. The documentary’s solution was that they needed to build a coal burning power plant. They said they believed coal was cheaper and more efficient than solar. I have to disagree. There are a few questions I have for those that made this little documentary. The more I hear about global warming, and the more bickering about it that goes on, the more I wonder if it isn’t something meant as a distraction to keep us from exploring and focusing on deeper issues.
How much does coal power really cost? How much does it cost to build a coal plant? How much does it cost to maintain it? How much to transport the coal? How much does it cost to pay the miners to dig the coal? How much does it cost to heal the damage done by strip mining? How many miners around the world have died in coal mining accidents? How much are their lives worth? How many other lives have been adversely affected by their deaths? What is the true environmental cost of burning coal to power our cities? There are more poisons and pollutants being pumped into the atmosphere than the carbon dioxide they are trying to blame for global warming. There’s hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, hydrogen fluoride, heavy metals and other toxic materials. These pollutants enter our atmosphere and rain down upon us contaminating all our ecospheres. The burning of coal for our power is not the answer, no matter how cheap it is. It is not our future. It should not be anyone’s future. The future of our power production is from clean, renewable sources else some unforeseen ecological disaster might sneak up on us and we will have no future. Global warming isn’t the only natural disaster we have to think about.
What is the real cost of solar power? That’s going to depend on your individual energy needs. Once you buy a system, the cost per KW/hr. will go down for every second the system operates without added maintenance cost. After an amount of time determined by energy usage and the cost of energy from the power companies which continues to increase, the renewable system would have paid for itself and the energy from that system is essentially free. Perhaps a more pertinent question would be what is a renewable energy system worth? What is it worth to you to have your complete independence? Imagine never having to pay a monthly fee to a power company again. Should you run into some bad luck and lose your job, you wouldn’t have to worry about them turning off your electricity due to non payment of your bill. If, God forbid, you were to get sick and were unable to work you electricity would be one less thing you’d have to worry about. Money that would have otherwise been going to the electric company can be used to pay medical bills, credit cards, or other monthly bills. You could even take your family out to eat with the money not going to the power company if that were your wish. Has a storm ever come through your neighborhood and knocked out your power? You wouldn’t have to worry about that again if you had a renewable energy system independent of the public grid. And if a storm damages any component of the system, your insurance would replace it. Remember the massive power failure during the summer of 2004? Anyone who had renewable power off the grid had nothing to worry about while some of their neighbors might have sweltered for days. Lastly, let us not forget that illusive terrorist attack. What would happen if terrorists attack the power grid? We are told that nuclear power plants are targets, what if one or more of them are put out of commission? How long would it be until power is restored? Days? Weeks? Months? It wouldn’t matter to you had your own power plant using renewable sources powering your house. Would you rather depend on the power company for your power, or yourself? How much is that worth to you?
The arguments surrounding the causes of climate change have become so obfuscated and convoluted by politics and agendas that it has become difficult to determine if anyone at all involved in the debate truly cares about global warming and its impact on the earth. The billionaire Mr. Richard Branson offers a 25 million dollar prize to anyone who can come up with a machine to remove carbon dioxide from the air while at the same time, according to some sources, planning to build an oil refinery to start his own fuel business he’d call Virgin Oil. He would pay someone 25 million for an invention that does the same thing trees do so that he could make billions more making what should become an obsolete fuel that pumps more carbon dioxide and other pollutants into the air. Let’s not even start to talk about the potential ecological hazards inherent in pumping and transporting oil. Wouldn’t it make more sense for a billionaire truly concerned about the environment to invest his money and marketing know how in ecologically safe renewable energy sources like solar and wind? That is where the future lies. Wouldn’t a business man’s money be better spent developing and building zero emissions vehicles that run 100% on renewable electricity or hydrogen? After all, in order to make billions more one has to make sure that billions of people remain on earth to spend their money.
Al Gore’s credibility has also suffered recently. He seems to have made it his mission in life to instill the fear of global warming into every human being on the face of the Earth. He claims to be concerned about the environment and global warming while operating a highly energy inefficient household. His solutions seem to always include tax increases, bigger government oversight, treaties and other convoluted legal mumbo jumbo. Treaties that allow for the selling of pollution quotas leave me wondering if anyone benefits. These types of quasi solutions which pick the pockets of some to enrich others are not the solutions we should be looking at. Leaders such as Mr. Gore should lead be example. He should convert his home to a clean, energy efficient home that meets all its energy needs through the use of green technologies. He certainly has the money to do so and this would be an example for others to follow. If he were to convert his home perhaps others of similar means would also be motivated to convert theirs. This would help raise demand, which would increase supply and the prices would start to fall so that it would soon be within the means of every homeowner to convert. Of course, I don’t expect this to happen overnight, but every little step along the road helps bring us closer to the destination.
Many people believe the answer to global warming lies in legislation. I maintain that the answer lies in the marketplace. Regardless of whether or not man is responsible for global warming, it would behoove us all to start switching over to renewable sources for all our energy needs. If man is contributing to global warming, switching over will help to minimize the impact we have. If we are not contributing, switching over will help us adapt to the changes that are going to occur. And in either case, switching over will help us all become financially independent of the energy behemoths that run our lives now and will help mitigate the ecological effects that burning coal, oil and radioactive materials have on this planet, the only planet we know of that supports life.
The Great Best Buy Gift Card Scam, Part II
This article was originally published on March 22nd, 2007 at americanchronicle.com
A few days back I wrote an article on something that happened to me on my birthday with Best Buy and a gift card I received. I have never received so much response to an article. When I first sat down to write about my experience, it was not my intention to become a type of Don Quixote. I am now under the delusion that maybe something I’m doing will actually help to make the world a little better, a little nicer, a little more chivalrous. It seems that some people don’t care and others wish to have their concerns addressed but don’t know where to turn. The latter get very angry and frustrated. I thought I could use this space to share some of the response I got to my story.
One gentleman wrote me an email calling my concerns ridiculous. He asked me what right I had to expect cash for my gift card and what I felt should be the refund limit on the card. He then informed me that there are far more grievous problems with gift cards such as expiration dates and balance reduction over time so my complaint was extremely foolish. My verbatim reply is below:
Sir,
Thank you for responding to my article. Feedback is always welcome. You ask a poignant question that I think deserves an answer. What right did I have to expect a cash return on my gift card? And interesting query. Upon reflection, I realize I wasn't thinking about my rights at the time I inquired about the change. I also really didn't think about my rights when I tried to get my money back for the merchandise. I wasn't even really thinking about my rights when I wrote this story in the first place. I was simply relating an episode in my life as honestly and objectively (albeit from my point of view) as I could and unveiling it as it happened. I didn't think I had claimed that I had a right to expect a cash return on my gift card, but I guess my actions could be taken as an indication that I felt I had a right to expect cash. I suppose we have the right to have expectations no matter what those expectations are. Just because we have expectations does not necessarily mean they will come to pass. As it was, at the time of the incident, I thought my wife had paid for the gift card with cash because that is her usual modus operandi. My expectations certainly were not met. In the long run, I guess Best Buy had the right to refute my expectations and they exercised that right just as I exercised my right to ask for what I felt I was due. As explained in the story, when it was explained that they had to put the money back to her credit card I accepted that and took the necessary steps to make sure that happened. I guess what I was really expecting was some good customer service, someone to listen to me and take care of my needs. I've always been taught that the customer is always right and to strive to make sure he's happy. I think that doesn't apply anymore in today's world. I have gotten a lot of feedback since this article has come out and I now realize that Best Buy simply does not care about the customer. As for how much I think the cash limit return on the card should be, 100% sounds good to me. The important thing should be that the customer has a good experience and you have won a customer for life. I have a story that was related to me about that too. Thank you also for the information about the cards losing their value and expiring. I had no idea that was the case. Yes, that certainly would have been a shame if I had waited, or lost the card and then found it again only to find that it had expired. That would certainly be a situation much worse than the one I experienced. You ask why companies should issue a card at all? Perhaps they shouldn't. I know I prefer cash and perhaps many people do but don't say so just to be polite. But, my opinion aside, the company should issue cards as a courtesy to the customer and in hopes of gaining new customers. They should not impose draconian rules upon those cards which would only serve to anger a potential customer, especially in this day and age when everyone has a platform they can climb upon to tell their story. I am sorry you feel my complaint was foolish, perhaps I am just a fool for questioning the rules. Perhaps from now on when I feel I am getting taken advantage of I should just keep my mouth shut. More likely I will continue to relate episodes of my life to anyone who is willing to read them. Thank you again for your interest.
Another gentleman told me to grow up, reminded me that retail workers make little money, and called me petty, a slovenly middle aged pseudo elitist and a schmuck. I guess he feels that because retail workers don’t make much money they are incapable of providing excellent customer service. I didn’t mean to imply in my article that I found fault with the employees of Best Buy. On the contrary, I think they were just being good little soldiers and obeying the orders of their superiors. I blame Best Buy’s policy makers, the ones at the top. As for being petty, according to a Fox News report dated Dec. 18th, 2006, Best Buy reported $43 million in gains from unused gift cards. I wish I had $43 million, then maybe I wouldn’t be so slovenly and could in fact be a real elitist. And talk about petty, Best Buy couldn’t dip into that $43 million and give me $8.49 change? If that’s not petty I don’t know what is.
Yet another gentleman informed me of a time when he had received a $25 gift card from Best Buy and they had refused to give him around $2.00 in change that he had coming to him. This was some time back and he has refused to step foot inside a Best Buy store since. He then went on to tell me a story about a gift card he had received from a small pet store that sold tropical fish. Since he keeps tropical fish and they’re hard to wrap, he felt that was a good application of a gift card. He went to the store and bought a couple of fish, but not enough to cover the entire amount on the card. The owner of the store asked him if he wanted the balance on the gift card or if he’d prefer it in cash. He told me the amount wasn’t much, around $10, but he took the cash. He continues to use that store for all his tropical fish needs even though they may sometimes charge more than a big chain pet store for certain supplies.
There were a few people who realized this article was more than just about the money, that it was about customer service. They related to me their own stories of poor to no customer service at Best Buy. One woman informed me that she had bought a new laptop computer from them for $900 with the new Windows Vista operating system installed on it. She took it home and discovered that it wouldn’t work with the software she used to conduct her business. This made the computer useless to her. She took it back to the store to ask if she could get the operating system replaced with one that would work and they told they could do that for a rather large fee. She then asked if she could return the unit seeing as how it was no good to her and get her money back and they told her they could do that for a $250 restocking fee. That's $250 they wanted to take from her without giving her anything in return. This was within a couple of days of her buying the unit. Angry and frustrated and finding no satisfaction with the so called customer service at Best Buy, she left the store with the merchandise she could not use and swore to never shop at Best Buy again.
One gentleman informed me of a situation he had with a PDA he bought at Best Buy. He told me that while it was in warranty the screen went bad and was somehow out of sync. He had bought the extended warranty. He took it back and they told him it would take them 45 days to repair it. He informed them that he used the unit every day and asked if they could exchange it for him. They informed him that wasn’t their policy. He asked if they could give him a loner for the 45 days that they would have it and they told him that wasn’t their policy. He finally gave in and let them take the unit. When it came back 30 days later he went to pick it up (surprised that it had arrived early) and found that it was not fixed. He asked if they had checked the screen and they said they had, then he showed them that it was still bad. They then told him it would take another 45 days for it to be fixed. He told them no, that he wanted an exchange. They said they could do it now but that his model was obsolete and he’d have to pay more for the upgrade. He wouldn’t take the deal as he liked the model he had and did not wish to spend more money. He finally gave up and walked out of the store with the defective unit, never to return.
Yet another gentleman bought a mini disc player as an open item from a Best Buy store. He was told it was working. When he got it home he found it was not. He tried to return the item to get his money back but they would not allow it. It wasn’t their policy. He is yet another customer Best Buy has lost.
I could go on, but why bother. Best Buy’s customer service policy seems to be no customer service. Whatever happened to “Satisfaction or your money back.”? Whatever happened to “The customer is always right.”? There is a nice story that was related to me to show us all that even in this day and age that there are still places where good customer service does exist.
A gentleman told me that he was in an Oberweis Ice Cream store one morning to pick up an ice cream cake. The price of the cake was $34. He was paying with a credit card. The card reader was having problems communicating with the authorization center. He offered to pay with another credit card, but the cashier told him it wasn’t the card that was the problem, it was the communication between the store and the authorization center. He waited for twenty to thirty minutes for the problem to resolve itself. Finally, the cashier told him to just take the cake for free. He was flabbergasted. It was a fairly expensive cake. He offered to come back and pay later. The cashier told him no, that she was the manager and it was her right to use her discretion to give him the cake. Now there’s a company who knows what customer service is all about. They realize that with good customer service they will gain a customer for life. They understand that the sacrifice of a relatively small amount now will pay big dividends in the future. That man is likely to go to Oberweis from now on for all his dairy needs.
I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations due to the last article. I’ve discussed everything from how a younger generation has grown up not knowing what good customer service is and so they don’t expect it to how people have become sheep and just accept things the way they are and do as they are told without question. I think that sometimes we as consumers don’t realize just how much power we have. If we don’t like how we are treated at a store, we shouldn’t shop there. It’s that simple. If we want excellent customer service, we must demand it. If one has a bad experience in a store, it is appropriate to tell as many other people about it as possible, otherwise no one else will know or care. Similarly, it is also important to let people know about the good experiences you have and recommend those stores that provide good customer service. This is how we can make the merchants hear us and listen to our needs. The same can be said in other areas of our lives. As a people Americans seem to just accept political corruption, poor representation and even outright criminal activities. This will continue until we demand change and stop putting politicians in office from parties we know are corrupt. We as a people, as a community and as a nation have the power to change the environments in which we do business through the positive action of refusing to do business with those that mistreat us. It is time to start practicing this idea.
A few days back I wrote an article on something that happened to me on my birthday with Best Buy and a gift card I received. I have never received so much response to an article. When I first sat down to write about my experience, it was not my intention to become a type of Don Quixote. I am now under the delusion that maybe something I’m doing will actually help to make the world a little better, a little nicer, a little more chivalrous. It seems that some people don’t care and others wish to have their concerns addressed but don’t know where to turn. The latter get very angry and frustrated. I thought I could use this space to share some of the response I got to my story.
One gentleman wrote me an email calling my concerns ridiculous. He asked me what right I had to expect cash for my gift card and what I felt should be the refund limit on the card. He then informed me that there are far more grievous problems with gift cards such as expiration dates and balance reduction over time so my complaint was extremely foolish. My verbatim reply is below:
Sir,
Thank you for responding to my article. Feedback is always welcome. You ask a poignant question that I think deserves an answer. What right did I have to expect a cash return on my gift card? And interesting query. Upon reflection, I realize I wasn't thinking about my rights at the time I inquired about the change. I also really didn't think about my rights when I tried to get my money back for the merchandise. I wasn't even really thinking about my rights when I wrote this story in the first place. I was simply relating an episode in my life as honestly and objectively (albeit from my point of view) as I could and unveiling it as it happened. I didn't think I had claimed that I had a right to expect a cash return on my gift card, but I guess my actions could be taken as an indication that I felt I had a right to expect cash. I suppose we have the right to have expectations no matter what those expectations are. Just because we have expectations does not necessarily mean they will come to pass. As it was, at the time of the incident, I thought my wife had paid for the gift card with cash because that is her usual modus operandi. My expectations certainly were not met. In the long run, I guess Best Buy had the right to refute my expectations and they exercised that right just as I exercised my right to ask for what I felt I was due. As explained in the story, when it was explained that they had to put the money back to her credit card I accepted that and took the necessary steps to make sure that happened. I guess what I was really expecting was some good customer service, someone to listen to me and take care of my needs. I've always been taught that the customer is always right and to strive to make sure he's happy. I think that doesn't apply anymore in today's world. I have gotten a lot of feedback since this article has come out and I now realize that Best Buy simply does not care about the customer. As for how much I think the cash limit return on the card should be, 100% sounds good to me. The important thing should be that the customer has a good experience and you have won a customer for life. I have a story that was related to me about that too. Thank you also for the information about the cards losing their value and expiring. I had no idea that was the case. Yes, that certainly would have been a shame if I had waited, or lost the card and then found it again only to find that it had expired. That would certainly be a situation much worse than the one I experienced. You ask why companies should issue a card at all? Perhaps they shouldn't. I know I prefer cash and perhaps many people do but don't say so just to be polite. But, my opinion aside, the company should issue cards as a courtesy to the customer and in hopes of gaining new customers. They should not impose draconian rules upon those cards which would only serve to anger a potential customer, especially in this day and age when everyone has a platform they can climb upon to tell their story. I am sorry you feel my complaint was foolish, perhaps I am just a fool for questioning the rules. Perhaps from now on when I feel I am getting taken advantage of I should just keep my mouth shut. More likely I will continue to relate episodes of my life to anyone who is willing to read them. Thank you again for your interest.
Another gentleman told me to grow up, reminded me that retail workers make little money, and called me petty, a slovenly middle aged pseudo elitist and a schmuck. I guess he feels that because retail workers don’t make much money they are incapable of providing excellent customer service. I didn’t mean to imply in my article that I found fault with the employees of Best Buy. On the contrary, I think they were just being good little soldiers and obeying the orders of their superiors. I blame Best Buy’s policy makers, the ones at the top. As for being petty, according to a Fox News report dated Dec. 18th, 2006, Best Buy reported $43 million in gains from unused gift cards. I wish I had $43 million, then maybe I wouldn’t be so slovenly and could in fact be a real elitist. And talk about petty, Best Buy couldn’t dip into that $43 million and give me $8.49 change? If that’s not petty I don’t know what is.
Yet another gentleman informed me of a time when he had received a $25 gift card from Best Buy and they had refused to give him around $2.00 in change that he had coming to him. This was some time back and he has refused to step foot inside a Best Buy store since. He then went on to tell me a story about a gift card he had received from a small pet store that sold tropical fish. Since he keeps tropical fish and they’re hard to wrap, he felt that was a good application of a gift card. He went to the store and bought a couple of fish, but not enough to cover the entire amount on the card. The owner of the store asked him if he wanted the balance on the gift card or if he’d prefer it in cash. He told me the amount wasn’t much, around $10, but he took the cash. He continues to use that store for all his tropical fish needs even though they may sometimes charge more than a big chain pet store for certain supplies.
There were a few people who realized this article was more than just about the money, that it was about customer service. They related to me their own stories of poor to no customer service at Best Buy. One woman informed me that she had bought a new laptop computer from them for $900 with the new Windows Vista operating system installed on it. She took it home and discovered that it wouldn’t work with the software she used to conduct her business. This made the computer useless to her. She took it back to the store to ask if she could get the operating system replaced with one that would work and they told they could do that for a rather large fee. She then asked if she could return the unit seeing as how it was no good to her and get her money back and they told her they could do that for a $250 restocking fee. That's $250 they wanted to take from her without giving her anything in return. This was within a couple of days of her buying the unit. Angry and frustrated and finding no satisfaction with the so called customer service at Best Buy, she left the store with the merchandise she could not use and swore to never shop at Best Buy again.
One gentleman informed me of a situation he had with a PDA he bought at Best Buy. He told me that while it was in warranty the screen went bad and was somehow out of sync. He had bought the extended warranty. He took it back and they told him it would take them 45 days to repair it. He informed them that he used the unit every day and asked if they could exchange it for him. They informed him that wasn’t their policy. He asked if they could give him a loner for the 45 days that they would have it and they told him that wasn’t their policy. He finally gave in and let them take the unit. When it came back 30 days later he went to pick it up (surprised that it had arrived early) and found that it was not fixed. He asked if they had checked the screen and they said they had, then he showed them that it was still bad. They then told him it would take another 45 days for it to be fixed. He told them no, that he wanted an exchange. They said they could do it now but that his model was obsolete and he’d have to pay more for the upgrade. He wouldn’t take the deal as he liked the model he had and did not wish to spend more money. He finally gave up and walked out of the store with the defective unit, never to return.
Yet another gentleman bought a mini disc player as an open item from a Best Buy store. He was told it was working. When he got it home he found it was not. He tried to return the item to get his money back but they would not allow it. It wasn’t their policy. He is yet another customer Best Buy has lost.
I could go on, but why bother. Best Buy’s customer service policy seems to be no customer service. Whatever happened to “Satisfaction or your money back.”? Whatever happened to “The customer is always right.”? There is a nice story that was related to me to show us all that even in this day and age that there are still places where good customer service does exist.
A gentleman told me that he was in an Oberweis Ice Cream store one morning to pick up an ice cream cake. The price of the cake was $34. He was paying with a credit card. The card reader was having problems communicating with the authorization center. He offered to pay with another credit card, but the cashier told him it wasn’t the card that was the problem, it was the communication between the store and the authorization center. He waited for twenty to thirty minutes for the problem to resolve itself. Finally, the cashier told him to just take the cake for free. He was flabbergasted. It was a fairly expensive cake. He offered to come back and pay later. The cashier told him no, that she was the manager and it was her right to use her discretion to give him the cake. Now there’s a company who knows what customer service is all about. They realize that with good customer service they will gain a customer for life. They understand that the sacrifice of a relatively small amount now will pay big dividends in the future. That man is likely to go to Oberweis from now on for all his dairy needs.
I’ve had a lot of interesting conversations due to the last article. I’ve discussed everything from how a younger generation has grown up not knowing what good customer service is and so they don’t expect it to how people have become sheep and just accept things the way they are and do as they are told without question. I think that sometimes we as consumers don’t realize just how much power we have. If we don’t like how we are treated at a store, we shouldn’t shop there. It’s that simple. If we want excellent customer service, we must demand it. If one has a bad experience in a store, it is appropriate to tell as many other people about it as possible, otherwise no one else will know or care. Similarly, it is also important to let people know about the good experiences you have and recommend those stores that provide good customer service. This is how we can make the merchants hear us and listen to our needs. The same can be said in other areas of our lives. As a people Americans seem to just accept political corruption, poor representation and even outright criminal activities. This will continue until we demand change and stop putting politicians in office from parties we know are corrupt. We as a people, as a community and as a nation have the power to change the environments in which we do business through the positive action of refusing to do business with those that mistreat us. It is time to start practicing this idea.
The Great Best Buy Gift Card Scam
This article was originally posted on March 19th, 2007 at americanchronicle.com
It was my birthday a couple of days ago. I’ve gotten well past the point where I make a big deal out of it. Still, it is nice that others recognize the day. It is pleasant that someone else lets you know that they are happy you were born. It’s also nice to get presents. So, it was my birthday and my wife got me a couple of presents, which was nice. She got me single cup coffee maker that brews coffee right into a travel cup, so I can kind of grab and go. She also got me a $100 Best Buy gift card, and that is where my adventure begins.
I used to love Best Buy. I went there often to buy CDs and other products because they had the best deals. They also had a tendency to have the largest selection. Since the advent of the Internet as a shopping venue, however, I find that Best Buy no longer has the best deals. I also don’t like having to deal with the crowds in there at Christmas time. The nearest Best Buy store to me is also quite a bit further away than other big box stores I could go to. But all that didn’t really matter today because I had a $100 gift card and I was going to go spend it on something I wanted, something fun. I was actually going to go shopping for myself. I got in my car and headed to Best Buy.
I arrived at Best Buy and grabbed a little hand held shopping basket. I wondered what there was that I would want for less than $100. I saw some digital cameras, but any that I wanted were more than $100. Besides, I already have a digital camera. I saw some digital camcorders, but they started at well over $200 and I don’t have the extra money to spend on something so frivolous at this moment. I saw a nice pair of binoculars for about seventy five dollars which I thought about because my telescope broke a while back, but I took a pass on it. I walked around the computer section for a while, trying to get a feel for the newest in that technology, but nothing caught my eye and there were certainly no deals that jumped out at me. I settled on the old stand by, CDs and movies. I went down the aisles looking at the Rock CDs, as those were what I was interested in. I picked out about five CDs, including Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers, a couple of old CDs from the Cure that I had never replaced from when my house burned down, and some other CD that I can’t remember. I then went to the movie section to look for something that might interest me. I found a history documentary on Hitler and the occult and some other movie. I wanted to get as close to a hundred dollars as possible. When I had picked out what I felt was enough I proceeded to the cash register.
I waited patiently in line as the cashier finished with the customer in front of me. I said hi to the cashier and asked her how she was doing as I like to do when in that situation. She told me she was fine and we continued to make small talk as she rang up my merchandise. The total of my purchase was $91.51. I felt OK with that and handed the cashier my gift card. I told her I wanted the remaining balance in cash. She told me she couldn’t do that. I asked her why not and she informed me that they couldn’t give cash back for a gift card. I insisted that someone had given her cash for that card and that I should be able to recover the cash I wasn’t spending. The manager quickly became involved. She told me that they could not give change for a gift card unless it was less than five dollars. She told me that if I had the receipt from the gift card that I could get the change from it. Can you imagine? Does anyone give someone a gift card and then give them the receipt to? How ridiculous does that sound? I changed tactics and told her I didn’t get up that way very often and did not want to return to her store to spend what was left on the card. She told me that I could go back now and spend the remaining money. Now my ire was raised. I saw their game. People get these gift cards and then are forced to spend almost the entire amount at the store, and I’m sure that the store hopes the consumer will spend more than what’s on the card. I could feel my face getting red. I grabbed my merchandise and walked out the store.
I was a few steps out the door when an idea hit me. If they weren’t going to give me the $8.49 change for the card, which should not have been that unreasonable a request, then I wasn’t going to give them any money at all. I turned around and went back in. I didn’t need the junk I had bought. Besides, I could probably get it cheaper somewhere else. I would return it and get my money back.
I went to the return counter and told them I wanted to return everything I had just bought. I told them I wanted cash for the merchandise. They would not give it to me. They would only put them money back on the gift card. Again, a manager got involved. This manager had a badge that told me he was a “hiring manager”, whatever that meant. I told him what was happening and that I refused to spend any of my money at his store. He told me that he would have liked to have given me cash for change but that Best Buy had a contract with American Express and that the agreement stated that they would not give change for more than five dollars. I told him I didn’t care about his excuses and that I wanted the money back for the card. He told me I needed the receipt, that if it was bought with a credit card that money would be returned to the card, if it was bought with a check then a check would be sent to me, if it was bought with cash than I would receive cash. The other manager, who had come over to observe the proceedings, said she had told me the same thing. I explained to her that she hadn’t, that she didn’t say anything about a contract with American Express. She told me that she had told me about not being able to return money without the receipt. The point was moot. I was going to have to get the receipt from my wife, who had been thoughtful enough to buy me this gift card which was now turning into more problems than it was worth. This certainly wasn’t the best customer service I had ever experienced.
I really doubt that these people cared about what was going on here. I can’t help but believe that those workers simply saw me as some butt hole out to give them a hard time. I doubt very much that they could see this from my point of view. I figured it this way, that someone had given them money to buy the gift card and had given me the gift card to use like money at their store. They were going to get their $100 cash for the card no matter what, so they should be able to give me the change. If what I was told by the “hiring manager” is true, then American Express really should have no business telling Best Buy how to best serve their customers. Personally, if it were me, I’d find someone else to handle the gift cards or do it myself if some corporation like American Express was putting such stupid restrictions on my customer service. If I had only wanted to spend ten dollars at their store it seems to me that it would be ten dollars more than they would have had otherwise. What harm would it do Best Buy to give change for a gift card no matter how much or how little one spends when using it? It seems to me that too many people probably just accept these restrictions, don’t question them, and so like sheep we just spend the money at that store even when we can’t find anything we really need or want. We really have become materialistic zombies wondering about the aisles of the big box stores buying junk to try to fulfill our empty lives. I found myself, as I traveled home now light all that merchandise but still in possession of the $100 gift card, thinking that I really didn’t need the stuff I had bought and that the money could be better spent elsewhere. I found myself thinking that all I was doing was acquiring meaningless junk anyway. Certainly there was more to life than acquiring material goods. I began to wonder if this episode was going to bring me some kind of spiritual epiphany.
I got home and fortunately my wife had the receipt for the gift card. If she had thrown it away I guess I would have been stuck with the card and I would have been forced to spend the money at Best Buy. It seems to me that that policy is also a little unfair. I took my son with me when I returned to Best Buy. I gave the manager the card and the receipt. He then asked me if I had the credit card which had purchased the gift card. I told him no, that it had been a gift. My son noted “Hence the name gift card.” Quite an astute observation from a thirteen year old, even if it was beyond obvious. I told him he had said all I would need was the receipt and that had he told me I needed the card I would have brought it. I ended up having to call my wife to get the credit card number. I then explained to the “hiring manager” that I knew he didn’t care, but someone higher up at Best Buy should. I explained that they’d had $91.51 in their pocket and that money had been lost to them simply because they refused to give me $8.49 change. Not only that, I told him, but I had given Best Buy gift cards as gifts in the past and I would no longer do that. In addition, my wife, who also thought the policy of not giving back change was silly, would never again buy a Best Buy gift card. I also told him that I would write about this episode and people would read about it. And so I have. In the end, the money was put back on my wife’s credit card and she gave me $100 dollars cash I can spend anywhere. I don’t know where I’m going to spend it, maybe I’ll hunt down some deals on the Internet, maybe I’ll take my family out to dinner. I’m sure I’ll make good use of it. As for a spiritual epiphany, it never happened, at least not yet. But I do feel better now that the episode is over and I've kept my promise to write about it. In fact, I feel strangely more empowered with $100 cash in my pocket than I did with flaccid piece of plastic good at only one store in my wallet.
It was my birthday a couple of days ago. I’ve gotten well past the point where I make a big deal out of it. Still, it is nice that others recognize the day. It is pleasant that someone else lets you know that they are happy you were born. It’s also nice to get presents. So, it was my birthday and my wife got me a couple of presents, which was nice. She got me single cup coffee maker that brews coffee right into a travel cup, so I can kind of grab and go. She also got me a $100 Best Buy gift card, and that is where my adventure begins.
I used to love Best Buy. I went there often to buy CDs and other products because they had the best deals. They also had a tendency to have the largest selection. Since the advent of the Internet as a shopping venue, however, I find that Best Buy no longer has the best deals. I also don’t like having to deal with the crowds in there at Christmas time. The nearest Best Buy store to me is also quite a bit further away than other big box stores I could go to. But all that didn’t really matter today because I had a $100 gift card and I was going to go spend it on something I wanted, something fun. I was actually going to go shopping for myself. I got in my car and headed to Best Buy.
I arrived at Best Buy and grabbed a little hand held shopping basket. I wondered what there was that I would want for less than $100. I saw some digital cameras, but any that I wanted were more than $100. Besides, I already have a digital camera. I saw some digital camcorders, but they started at well over $200 and I don’t have the extra money to spend on something so frivolous at this moment. I saw a nice pair of binoculars for about seventy five dollars which I thought about because my telescope broke a while back, but I took a pass on it. I walked around the computer section for a while, trying to get a feel for the newest in that technology, but nothing caught my eye and there were certainly no deals that jumped out at me. I settled on the old stand by, CDs and movies. I went down the aisles looking at the Rock CDs, as those were what I was interested in. I picked out about five CDs, including Death Cab for Cutie, The Killers, a couple of old CDs from the Cure that I had never replaced from when my house burned down, and some other CD that I can’t remember. I then went to the movie section to look for something that might interest me. I found a history documentary on Hitler and the occult and some other movie. I wanted to get as close to a hundred dollars as possible. When I had picked out what I felt was enough I proceeded to the cash register.
I waited patiently in line as the cashier finished with the customer in front of me. I said hi to the cashier and asked her how she was doing as I like to do when in that situation. She told me she was fine and we continued to make small talk as she rang up my merchandise. The total of my purchase was $91.51. I felt OK with that and handed the cashier my gift card. I told her I wanted the remaining balance in cash. She told me she couldn’t do that. I asked her why not and she informed me that they couldn’t give cash back for a gift card. I insisted that someone had given her cash for that card and that I should be able to recover the cash I wasn’t spending. The manager quickly became involved. She told me that they could not give change for a gift card unless it was less than five dollars. She told me that if I had the receipt from the gift card that I could get the change from it. Can you imagine? Does anyone give someone a gift card and then give them the receipt to? How ridiculous does that sound? I changed tactics and told her I didn’t get up that way very often and did not want to return to her store to spend what was left on the card. She told me that I could go back now and spend the remaining money. Now my ire was raised. I saw their game. People get these gift cards and then are forced to spend almost the entire amount at the store, and I’m sure that the store hopes the consumer will spend more than what’s on the card. I could feel my face getting red. I grabbed my merchandise and walked out the store.
I was a few steps out the door when an idea hit me. If they weren’t going to give me the $8.49 change for the card, which should not have been that unreasonable a request, then I wasn’t going to give them any money at all. I turned around and went back in. I didn’t need the junk I had bought. Besides, I could probably get it cheaper somewhere else. I would return it and get my money back.
I went to the return counter and told them I wanted to return everything I had just bought. I told them I wanted cash for the merchandise. They would not give it to me. They would only put them money back on the gift card. Again, a manager got involved. This manager had a badge that told me he was a “hiring manager”, whatever that meant. I told him what was happening and that I refused to spend any of my money at his store. He told me that he would have liked to have given me cash for change but that Best Buy had a contract with American Express and that the agreement stated that they would not give change for more than five dollars. I told him I didn’t care about his excuses and that I wanted the money back for the card. He told me I needed the receipt, that if it was bought with a credit card that money would be returned to the card, if it was bought with a check then a check would be sent to me, if it was bought with cash than I would receive cash. The other manager, who had come over to observe the proceedings, said she had told me the same thing. I explained to her that she hadn’t, that she didn’t say anything about a contract with American Express. She told me that she had told me about not being able to return money without the receipt. The point was moot. I was going to have to get the receipt from my wife, who had been thoughtful enough to buy me this gift card which was now turning into more problems than it was worth. This certainly wasn’t the best customer service I had ever experienced.
I really doubt that these people cared about what was going on here. I can’t help but believe that those workers simply saw me as some butt hole out to give them a hard time. I doubt very much that they could see this from my point of view. I figured it this way, that someone had given them money to buy the gift card and had given me the gift card to use like money at their store. They were going to get their $100 cash for the card no matter what, so they should be able to give me the change. If what I was told by the “hiring manager” is true, then American Express really should have no business telling Best Buy how to best serve their customers. Personally, if it were me, I’d find someone else to handle the gift cards or do it myself if some corporation like American Express was putting such stupid restrictions on my customer service. If I had only wanted to spend ten dollars at their store it seems to me that it would be ten dollars more than they would have had otherwise. What harm would it do Best Buy to give change for a gift card no matter how much or how little one spends when using it? It seems to me that too many people probably just accept these restrictions, don’t question them, and so like sheep we just spend the money at that store even when we can’t find anything we really need or want. We really have become materialistic zombies wondering about the aisles of the big box stores buying junk to try to fulfill our empty lives. I found myself, as I traveled home now light all that merchandise but still in possession of the $100 gift card, thinking that I really didn’t need the stuff I had bought and that the money could be better spent elsewhere. I found myself thinking that all I was doing was acquiring meaningless junk anyway. Certainly there was more to life than acquiring material goods. I began to wonder if this episode was going to bring me some kind of spiritual epiphany.
I got home and fortunately my wife had the receipt for the gift card. If she had thrown it away I guess I would have been stuck with the card and I would have been forced to spend the money at Best Buy. It seems to me that that policy is also a little unfair. I took my son with me when I returned to Best Buy. I gave the manager the card and the receipt. He then asked me if I had the credit card which had purchased the gift card. I told him no, that it had been a gift. My son noted “Hence the name gift card.” Quite an astute observation from a thirteen year old, even if it was beyond obvious. I told him he had said all I would need was the receipt and that had he told me I needed the card I would have brought it. I ended up having to call my wife to get the credit card number. I then explained to the “hiring manager” that I knew he didn’t care, but someone higher up at Best Buy should. I explained that they’d had $91.51 in their pocket and that money had been lost to them simply because they refused to give me $8.49 change. Not only that, I told him, but I had given Best Buy gift cards as gifts in the past and I would no longer do that. In addition, my wife, who also thought the policy of not giving back change was silly, would never again buy a Best Buy gift card. I also told him that I would write about this episode and people would read about it. And so I have. In the end, the money was put back on my wife’s credit card and she gave me $100 dollars cash I can spend anywhere. I don’t know where I’m going to spend it, maybe I’ll hunt down some deals on the Internet, maybe I’ll take my family out to dinner. I’m sure I’ll make good use of it. As for a spiritual epiphany, it never happened, at least not yet. But I do feel better now that the episode is over and I've kept my promise to write about it. In fact, I feel strangely more empowered with $100 cash in my pocket than I did with flaccid piece of plastic good at only one store in my wallet.
Where is America?
This article was originally posted on Febuary 25th, 2007 at americanchronicle.com
I wonder how many people in this country of ours can actually answer that question by looking on a map. I know, many of you are saying America is a large country situated on the North American continent between Canada and Mexico with Alaska being a large chunk of land situated north of the rest of the country on the western side of Canada and Hawaii a small chain of islands situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But that’s not all America is. America is far more than just a physical place, a land where some three hundred million people live, work, play and die. America is an idea. It is the idea that people can live out their lives while enjoying freedom and liberty. It is the idea that I know what’s best for me and you know what’s best for you. It is the idea that one can live however one pleases so long as he does not harm another. It is the idea that one can go about one’s business of living without government interference or mandates. I wish to know where this America is, for in today’s world such a place does not exist. Every day I have to live with the threat of government putting its hand in my affairs. Whether it be that I am forced to buckle my seatbelt to drive my car, that I won’t be able to light up as I sit at the bar enjoying a beverage, that I am forced to give a portion of my money to some faceless bureaucrat so he can redistribute it, or that I have to be extremely careful about who I associate with on the Internet, the government attempts to pry into every aspect of modern life. This is not America. At least, it’s not the America I learned about as a child. Where is America?
This country that we live in has become corrupt to the core. Corruption, like a cancer, grows and metastasizes as its tendrils reach into every system and subsystem of the body politic. Soon, the whole entity is sick with it. It begins to permeate not only government, but the foundations society is built upon. It begins to seem as though corruption is the norm rather than the exception. It gets to the point where it seems the only way to get ahead is to become corrupt, become part of the cancer. An honest business man hardly stands a chance as the government regulates him into bankruptcy. An honest worker finds himself drowning in debt as the government taxes his earnings to the point where he can’t pay his bills. Yet government continues to grow, continues to spend the money we haven’t even earned yet, and as the government grows, so does corruption. Soon, the only businesses left are those with government contracts, those with government connections, those that have donated to the campaigns of elected officials. Soon, the only jobs available are government jobs, or jobs tied to the government. The system morphs into one of state owned means rather than private enterprise. This is not America. We need fewer regulations, not more.
The country we live in has become arrogant and belligerent. Our government has carried out wars of aggression against other nations. Our government has invaded and occupied countries which no longer welcome us. Our government seems to feel obliged to force our way of life on other peoples. Our government now rules the people of this nation by fear. We are told to fear the next terrorist attack. We are told to fear weapons of mass destruction. We are told to fear a dirty bomb. We are told to fear the Muslim, or the Arab, or the man with the funny accent. This fear is used as an excuse for the government to spy on its people. Dissent is squelched. Questions are frowned upon. Those that ask questions and chose to dissent are criticized, ostracized and even threatened with imprisonment. And so the fear perpetuates itself. We now fear the government. Soon, we will fear each other. Already, we have begun to spy on one another. More and more the society resembles a police state much like that of Hitler’s Germany. This is not America. We need to be the peace makers, not the warriors. We need to be friendly to our neighbors, not suspicious of them. We need less government and fewer laws, not more.
The other night I was listening to a radio talk show called Free Talk Live. Actually, I’ve been listening to the show for quite some time now. It’s hosted by a couple of young gentlemen who espouse the virtues of libertarianism. It’s a show I wish I had thought of and been able to do twenty years ago, but I guess everything comes to be in its own time. This show has a powerful message of hope, for if we all pay attention to its message and act upon it, America may yet be America again. Anyway, the other day when I was listening, one of the hosts said something very interesting. He made the claim that being libertarian meant more than just belonging to a political party, it was a way life. I thought about this, and decided he was right.
This is where America is. It lives in the hearts and minds of those who practice libertarianism. It breathes in those who believe in the rights of the individual and personal responsibility. Its spirit lives on in those who understand tyranny and speak out against it, though the majority may be in favor of it. Being Libertarian is being American. It is respecting the rights of others to make up their own minds, to take care of their own business, to recreate in their own way and to live their own lives. America is not just a place, it’s a way of life. America is still here despite all the attempts of the president and congress to legislate it into the dustbin of history. Freedom and liberty are powerful ideas that, once planted in the hearts and minds of the populace, are hard to kill. If we give these ideas a little water, if we pay just a little bit of attention to them, they will grow and spread like wild flowers in our garden. Then we can have hope for our future. Then we can find America in this place once again.
I wonder how many people in this country of ours can actually answer that question by looking on a map. I know, many of you are saying America is a large country situated on the North American continent between Canada and Mexico with Alaska being a large chunk of land situated north of the rest of the country on the western side of Canada and Hawaii a small chain of islands situated in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But that’s not all America is. America is far more than just a physical place, a land where some three hundred million people live, work, play and die. America is an idea. It is the idea that people can live out their lives while enjoying freedom and liberty. It is the idea that I know what’s best for me and you know what’s best for you. It is the idea that one can live however one pleases so long as he does not harm another. It is the idea that one can go about one’s business of living without government interference or mandates. I wish to know where this America is, for in today’s world such a place does not exist. Every day I have to live with the threat of government putting its hand in my affairs. Whether it be that I am forced to buckle my seatbelt to drive my car, that I won’t be able to light up as I sit at the bar enjoying a beverage, that I am forced to give a portion of my money to some faceless bureaucrat so he can redistribute it, or that I have to be extremely careful about who I associate with on the Internet, the government attempts to pry into every aspect of modern life. This is not America. At least, it’s not the America I learned about as a child. Where is America?
This country that we live in has become corrupt to the core. Corruption, like a cancer, grows and metastasizes as its tendrils reach into every system and subsystem of the body politic. Soon, the whole entity is sick with it. It begins to permeate not only government, but the foundations society is built upon. It begins to seem as though corruption is the norm rather than the exception. It gets to the point where it seems the only way to get ahead is to become corrupt, become part of the cancer. An honest business man hardly stands a chance as the government regulates him into bankruptcy. An honest worker finds himself drowning in debt as the government taxes his earnings to the point where he can’t pay his bills. Yet government continues to grow, continues to spend the money we haven’t even earned yet, and as the government grows, so does corruption. Soon, the only businesses left are those with government contracts, those with government connections, those that have donated to the campaigns of elected officials. Soon, the only jobs available are government jobs, or jobs tied to the government. The system morphs into one of state owned means rather than private enterprise. This is not America. We need fewer regulations, not more.
The country we live in has become arrogant and belligerent. Our government has carried out wars of aggression against other nations. Our government has invaded and occupied countries which no longer welcome us. Our government seems to feel obliged to force our way of life on other peoples. Our government now rules the people of this nation by fear. We are told to fear the next terrorist attack. We are told to fear weapons of mass destruction. We are told to fear a dirty bomb. We are told to fear the Muslim, or the Arab, or the man with the funny accent. This fear is used as an excuse for the government to spy on its people. Dissent is squelched. Questions are frowned upon. Those that ask questions and chose to dissent are criticized, ostracized and even threatened with imprisonment. And so the fear perpetuates itself. We now fear the government. Soon, we will fear each other. Already, we have begun to spy on one another. More and more the society resembles a police state much like that of Hitler’s Germany. This is not America. We need to be the peace makers, not the warriors. We need to be friendly to our neighbors, not suspicious of them. We need less government and fewer laws, not more.
The other night I was listening to a radio talk show called Free Talk Live. Actually, I’ve been listening to the show for quite some time now. It’s hosted by a couple of young gentlemen who espouse the virtues of libertarianism. It’s a show I wish I had thought of and been able to do twenty years ago, but I guess everything comes to be in its own time. This show has a powerful message of hope, for if we all pay attention to its message and act upon it, America may yet be America again. Anyway, the other day when I was listening, one of the hosts said something very interesting. He made the claim that being libertarian meant more than just belonging to a political party, it was a way life. I thought about this, and decided he was right.
This is where America is. It lives in the hearts and minds of those who practice libertarianism. It breathes in those who believe in the rights of the individual and personal responsibility. Its spirit lives on in those who understand tyranny and speak out against it, though the majority may be in favor of it. Being Libertarian is being American. It is respecting the rights of others to make up their own minds, to take care of their own business, to recreate in their own way and to live their own lives. America is not just a place, it’s a way of life. America is still here despite all the attempts of the president and congress to legislate it into the dustbin of history. Freedom and liberty are powerful ideas that, once planted in the hearts and minds of the populace, are hard to kill. If we give these ideas a little water, if we pay just a little bit of attention to them, they will grow and spread like wild flowers in our garden. Then we can have hope for our future. Then we can find America in this place once again.
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