Open Prison Canada

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Islam and Uber can do no wrong. Trump and Christians can do no right. Or so a casual, non-committed observer of current events might be forgiven for believing.

It starts out with a report on the politics around the murders in Brussels, and the apparent correlation between Islam and terrorism. It seemed a bit gutsy to me that anyone today would even mention such an idea.

What really struck me was the account of how banks and corporations are increasingly immune from the law. It was a perfect fit for Uber.

It ends up defending the rights of Christians to live and act in accordance with their beliefs, no matter how "primitive" they may seem to progressives. It seemed a bit gutsy to me that anyone today would even mention such an idea. (!)

One of the first questions people ask when they learn I am a taxi driver is, "Has anyone ever puked in your cab?"

I don't know why the answer to that question seems to hold such fascination for people. How often do nurses get asked if anyone puked on their scrubs?

When I went to an Uber recruiting session in Hamilton last year, someone from the group of candidates asked the host about the dreaded "P" issue. I laughed when I heard him respond, "People don't puke in Uber cabs." Yeah, right.

Has anyone ever puked in your Uber?

See a few answers below. No surprises.

Has anyone successfully recieve cleaning fee?

My Tweet of the day.

It looks like @timhudak is not so sanguine about the "sharing economy" when it involves tobacco. What, no app? https://t.co/ABA76jTLF3
— Uncle_Block (@Uncle_Block) March 24, 2016

There are SO MANY reasons to hate this trend toward the "cashless society" that it is difficult to know where to begin. But I do have an example that is fresh in my mind right now.

Yesterday, I spoke with an agent about getting my own debit machine for use in my taxi. Here is a synopsis of the conversation:

Him: How can I help you?

Me: I would like to get a debit machine for use in my taxi.

Him: Okay. I can help you. It will cost $X to send you the machine, $Y per month, plus a $300 set-up fee which is refundable if you do $3,000 worth of credit card transactions in the first three months.

Me: Well, I already know that I will not do $3,000 worth of credit card transactions in three months, so I guess this plan will not work for me.

Him: Okay, we have a second plan. This one only involves paying a $150 set-up fee, but it will be refunded if you do $1,000 worth of credit card transactions in the first three months.

Me: (It's a good thing I used the Square for one full year and already knew that $1,000 was unachievable unless I started begging customers to use their credit cards, so I told him that wouldn't work either. It also struck me as odd that there would be a much lower set-up fee in anticipation of much lower volume. So, feeling a bit sheepish at having to admit that my business does not involve such large sums of money, I told him that I was probably not interested. That was when he came up with his third proposal.)

Him: Well, Okay. This is what I will do, I will send you the machine and you only have to pay for shipping and handling. There will be no $300 or $150 set-up fee and you won't have to pay the $60 + tax monthly fee for the first two months.

Me: (Having noticed that the set-up fee was quickly reduced to zero because my anticipated volumes were too low, a Monty Pythonish scenario if ever there was one, I was left a little dazed.) So, you mean I don't have to pay anything, other than the $75 (shipping) to get the machine?

Him: Yes.

Me: Can you send me an email confirming that?

Him: That would take some time, and I would rather conclude this arrangement right now.

Me: I am reluctant to proceed unless I get something in writing.

Him: Okay, I will email it to you.

Me: (It took less than a minute for me to receive the email.)

Me: Okay, I've got it.

It said,

"Hi Hans,

I will charge you $75 for the initial cost and I will waive 2 months of your monthly rental. Within the 2 months if you decide to cancel please give us a call and we will pick up the unit at no cost to you. After that it would be $60 + tax"

I also recorded part of the conversation to protect myself.

The lesson I learned from this is that they seem to be desperate to distribute these machines, and far from having any real necessity to charge a $300 set-up fee, they are more than happy to waive that fee just to start skimming a steady percentage of your business, no matter how slim your revenues might be.

And the insight I derived is that these institutions are ready to do JUST ABOUT ANYTHING to wean the population from the convenience and privacy of cash. Because, in part, as it applies to cab driving:

In the old days, all you needed to worry about was having a wallet. The last time I bought a wallet it cost me about $20. It was good for a few years. Now I find myself propelled into a world where I need the equivalent of an electronic wallet, and one which, far from costing me about $20 every few years will cost me $60 + tax EVERY MONTH. That's $720 per year just to have an extra wallet.

But you have no choice because the sheeple are embracing the concept without any doubts or misgivings as to the consequences of abandoning control of their medium of exchange. What will you do in an age of Zirp and Nirp, if the option of converting your money into cash disappears? Or even in the event of a widespread power outage?

Do not go gentle into that good night.

VIRAL VIDEO: Black cop tells the TRUTH about Trump rallies