Adding Value

Sometimes I think of myself as a recluse, an isolationalist.

But I tend to realise that isn't it. It's more that I object to.. production chains where many of the people in the chain take a cut of the price - thus increasing the end cost - without adding value.

I don't want to pay for the advertising industry, but if I were to buy, say, a toothbrush, I'd be supporting it.

I had the opportunity to watch TV over the weekend while I was dogsitting. On one channel, the same "Cialis" advert played 2 or 3 times every advert break (ie, every 10 minutes), all day long. The channel was about home improvement and DIY. The fact that a medication is allowed to be advertised that heavily as something that makes people take more notice of you is... shocking. If you need it, your doctor should prescribe it. It should not be a recreational choice.

It's reckless and irresponsible - in order to pay for that level of advertising then a serious proportion of men should have the problem that that medication "fixes" - but, if that high a proportion of middle aged men has that issue, then surely it's a lifestyle issue (too much TV, doughnuts, etc...) rather than a purely "medical" one.

There was also one advert suggesting taking the pill would allow a woman a trip to Paris and a house. But I digress.

In fact this is all a digression from the main point. The supply chain should be one only long enough that each link adds *real* value to the end product. Oh, I know, it's not quite that simple, but take one example.

In an Organic food shop in Ottawa there is a booth with alternative medications (frustrating in itself that herbal quick fixes and all sorts of other junk are available, and prominently pushed, in shops that "should be" selling good quality, reasonably priced, pesticide free and genetically natural foods. This has a much higher margin, though, than organic potatoes, no doubt..), and I saw and tried on a pair of "pinhole glasses".

Pretty cool - I'd not heard of them. But $35-40 for what looked like cheap plastic frames with a piece of plastic mesh instead of a normal lens seemed excessive.

I found exactly the same item on eBay for about $2, posted from Hong Kong.

That's a 1800% or so markup. Just for being out, at a display in a real shop, not just on the internet.

So I'm not isolationist - I just really really object to being overcharged.

I know, that's one sided. If someone is willing to pay £5000 per day for another person to sit in their hallway and say "Fish! Fish! FishyfishyFISH!" all day long, who am I to stop them? But that is a direct value - the buyer values that service, there is no chain.

It's like paying tax that goes to support Trident, or the nuclear industry in general, or... Except that is, at least supposedly, democracy, and we're all in that together. Supposedly.

Canadian Election

...stinks.

Really stinks.

It seems pretty clear that the Conservatives have engineered this election in order to get a shot at a majority government.

They have spent millions this year on "attack ads" against the Liberal leader. Apparently, since Jan 31st, the Liberals have had 150 ads on tv; the NDP about 1000; and the Tories 6,200.

The attack ads are fear-based. In fact it looks like the whole Conservative campaign will be fear based. Sadly it seems like Canadians are into it - some dislike the dirtiness, but for most, stability is key. Better the devil you know (even if that devil is leading the country into a mess in a couple of years - huge deficit with a very complacent attitude).

I don't know how anyone could vote for a party that twists the truth so much. What ever happened to politicians being fine, clean, upstanding members of the community?

"Hate Ignatieff - because he's been a professor at Harvard" (broader world view is a negative these days?), or the like. Ugh.

Stinks.

Politics

I think most would agree that, in order to be a politician, you need to be able to put the best face on things, make yourself look good no matter what; have a hunger for power; be able to speak confidently about things you might not really know that much about, and at short notice.

It's a horrible sounding job - being the fall guy, the front. If you have any personal beliefs you have to bury those in order to be in step with your party - moreso the higher you rise.

And then we wonder why we have horrible people doing the job. People who will say blue one day, green the next just to stay in the job.

Well, it's the system that puts those conditions on politicians. The lies, half truths and evasions must become so embedded that a clear sense of right and wrong often gets lost.

How can we be surprised that MPs have trouble seeing that their expenses claims are outrageous when millions are wasted by their departments...

I'm really beginning to see that, if we really want politics and politicians to change, we need to rethink how they get into power and under what circumstances they can stay in power.

If the system that employs them recognises openness, and removes the necessity for an opposition thats role is solely to undermine the ruling party, we could do so much better, I think.

Drop parties - give individuals the right to always vote how they feel they *should*, rather than how their party tells them to.

And, of course, think more about "people" than "corporations".