I was reading an article on Time.com about how the two satellite radio companies are attempting a merger. The article was talking about how the FCC is leaning towards approving the merger. If the merger is approved then the satellite radio business will become a monopoly. I thought monopolies were not allowed; isn’t that why the Bell System was broken up in the 1980s?
Hardy Boys books
by Mary AnneWhen I was a little girl I loved the Nancy Drew Mystery Books. My sisters and I had a huge collection of them. Now that I’m thinking about them, I wonder whatever happened to them! But I digress…. When I had my first son, I thought he would enjoy reading the Hardy Boy books. So I bought a bunch of them, pretty much as many as I could find. Well, he never read a single one of them. And neither did my younger son. So I have a ton of Hardy Boy Books that have never been read. Just taking up space on my bookshelf, collecting dust. From time to time I think about getting rid of them, but being the pack-rat that I am, I am SURE that at some point in time there will be a male relative who wants them! Maybe I should pack them in a plastic storage box and put some desiccant in the box and store them in the basement. I could use the shelf they are on the the media room for something else!
The economy worries me to no end
by Mary AnneThe economy worries me more than I’d like to admit. According to the news programs that I watch and the Internet news sites that I read, the ever increasing gasoline prices, the increasing food prices, the floods in Iowa are going to result in HIGHER food prices, the price of milk will be going up to $6.00 gallon soon and the higher unemployment rates all spell bad times ahead. We’re already in bad times; I hate to think of them getting much worse. I hope that when the Presidential election is over and done with the economy will recover.
Shopping local
by Mary AnneAs the economy worsens and people tighten their belts even more, it becomes more important for people to support their own communities by shopping local. I know that there is a tendency for people to shop near where they work, and that often means that they are not shopping local to where they live. That is one of the problems in today’s work world, so many people commute such a long distance that they find it almost impossible to shop in the communities in which they live; their home base truly is simply a bedroom community – a place to sleep. One of the reasons for that is that often the local businesses don’t pay decent wages so most of the residents drive further to get higher pay. However, with the price of commuting going up because of the skyrocketing fuels prices, it may soon be the case that commuting is no longer paying the benefit because the higher pay is being negated by the cost of commuting.
If more people shopped local to where they lived, perhaps that would give the businesses more income to invest in the community and give them they ability to increase their wage scale. Shopping local is a good idea if it prevents you from driving long distances just to save a dollar or two on the price of an item.
