I’d like to get some random thoughts out of my head and into print. I appreciate your patience.
I’m convinced COVID has ruined a lot of things but none more than cash. During COVID we were convinced to use contactless payments. Credit cards for everything. Many of the “cool kid” places in the world even became cashless. Even schools went cashless for sporting events and the like. Then, somewhere post COVID, many of the same businesses that didn’t want our cash began to charge the credit card fee back to us if we used credit cards. “Here’s your coffee, plus 3% for MasterCard.” It was a master class in capitalism. We should probably fight back.
So now I’m simply confused and for funsies, I like giving people cash for my purchases, just to make their head spin.
The cashless bars drive me crazy. I wake up the next morning and my credit card app looks like its been stabbed by OJ a few hundred times with transaction list that goes on forever. Every single beer and every single tip just sits there and stares at me the next morning. It’s like an iPhone induced walk of shame that I’m forced to endure.
The consumer trouncing does not end with cash. Hotels took COVID and beat us upside the head with it. They raised prices to $200 a night for the crappiest of places and then they pulled another fast one. During COVID there was little to no housekeeping service and then after, they cut it down to voluntary with a maximum once every other day. See what they did there? Raised the prices and lowered the services they provided, another master class in capitalism. But at least they lay out some cold powdered eggs for you in the mornings.
Just for funsies, I ask for daily housekeeper service immediately upon check in.
I’m a fatalist at heart. Always thinking worst case scenario. I’ve decided if I’m ever homeless and need food, I’m going to just stroll into Drury Inns for the free breakfast each morning. I think I could pull that off for quite a while. At least until I start stinking too bad. Anyway, I’m a planner that way, I’ll let you know if things get that bad.
Another COVID outcome is local government security. Something happened during that time period that made every single local government entity think they were all of the sudden in a security risk situation and they started locking doors, throwing up metal detectors and installing bulletproof glass everywhere, replacing the plexiglass that protected them from COVID spittle.
Courthouses are a shell of their former greatness as gatherings of freedom and democracy at this point. They’re more like prisons than places of open government. I’m not sure if the workers or the public are the prisoners, probably a state of mind. Young adults today would not recognize government buildings from just 20 or 30 years ago. I worked in local government in the 90’s and I remember random citizens just strolling into county commission meetings and discussing matters. Heck, sometimes people could catch a judge for an impromptu legal ruling back then. You don’t see that anymore without a decent pat down and bomb sniffing dogs on your way in the door.
I’ve not decided where I would sleep if I was homeless. I’ve never been to Foley’s new office but I suspect it would be comfortable enough. I could just do overnights there and clear out in the mornings. Just a thought. These are the things that go through my mind, I’m not totally sure why, and I’m afraid of the cost to find out what makes me think this way. It seems easier to just throw it in a column.
(Guy Speckman can be reached staring at this credit card transaction app)
