Sticking It To The Middleman!

We all love to cut out the middleman. If it means we can save money, time and get what we want and not what someone else thinks we want then its all good. But is it?

When I go to the supermarket these days if the self service aisle is open I’ll use that rather than wait in the queue for someone else to serve me. That option though has consequences,  when I choose that option I’m helping a company decide to employ one person with the responsibility for 8 check outs instead of 4 separate employees for 4 separate check outs. Right now the supermarket will say they are giving me a choice. In a few years to come, there will be no choice. It will be self service for most of us and someone to help the older shopper that can’t do it by themselves. Less jobs, more profits.

Politicians like to tell us jobs have been lost to China and India, and they have. But the sort of jobs that are now going to China and India have been going to the cheapest markets for decades. A lot of the jobs that are being lost in the economy now aren’t manufacturing jobs. I don’t mind my computer being made in China, the whole world needs jobs. Besides China is probably what is keeping this world economy moving when the West has right royally screwed its own economy.

Its not the emergence of China and India that we need to be wary of. Nor is it the deficits of the US or European countries. Its the collapse of our economy through corporate and individual greed. We are responsible for it too. Every time we cut out the middleman we make a job less necessary.

The jobs that are disappearing in our economy aren’t the manufacturing jobs of old. For more than 30 years those jobs have been going to wherever that is deemed to be cheapest at the time. They disappeared out of the economy a long time ago, the manufacturing jobs that are staying here, are either industries that are barely hanging on or have taken steps to make something better than what China and India are offering.

Instead the jobs that are disappearing in today's economy are service jobs that used to require a local person to service you. Those are jobs that can’t be done by someone in China or India. Yet those jobs are disappearing faster than any other in today’s economy. Unless something is done about it, we are all going to suffer. If the politicians don’t catch on, until its too late, the economy of America and the economy of Europe is going to collapse. Those of us lucky enough to have jobs will be left with the bill of paying off the deficits that our politicians have run up and left holding up whatever economy is left.

When was the last time you used a travel agent to book your 2 week break? We are being bombarded with adverts on tv and online with ways to book our flight, hotel room and whatever else we want. Cheap flights are just a click away. All the people that used to do those jobs are having their jobs being obliterated not by developing  countries but by technology. That nerdy kid who used to get bullied at your school is getting his revenge, he now works for a software company that is eliminating jobs left and right. Whole employment categories, from secretaries to travel agents, are starting to disappear. 

You might think that the supermarket pays poor wages to the check out person and that job isn’t a huge loss, the person who lost their job doesn’t think so. Forget the supermarket analogy for a moment, a lot of the service jobs out there that are going the same way have middle class pay grades.

For more than 30 years technology has reduced the number of jobs in manufacturing. We have grown used to it. Now though technology is being adopted by every kind of organization that employs people. It's replacing workers in large corporations and small businesses, established companies and start-ups. The most vulnerable workers are doing repetitive tasks that programmers can write software for — an accountant checking a list of numbers, an office manager filing forms, human resource personnel reviewing job applicants for key words to help fill a job. The software of the technology today is becoming ever more  sophisticated, workers who thought they were protected by a college degree aren’t as safe as they thought.

Thanks to technology, companies are once again reporting profits but the jobs of those companies are only slowly coming back, and at lower pay grades than before the recession.

Entrepreneurs who used to be the great driver of new jobs in the economy can launch businesses with fewer employees than ever before. There is less need for administrative support and back-office jobs that handle accounting, payroll and benefits. It's becoming a self-serve world. Instead of relying on someone else in the workplace or our personal lives, we use technology to do tasks ourselves.

Politicians are distracted by the apparent threat from China or the immigrant. Those politicians miss the point. The immigrant is an easy target but immigrants pay taxes, they pay rent, they buy cars. They contribute to the success of the country. Take 11 million people out of the economy what happens to the economy? Big bad China provides goods at a cost that we are willing to pay and in return keeps the world economy ticking along. No politician is attempting to stop companies here from using technology that allows them to operate more efficiently with fewer employees.

Bad times are coming and we will reap what we sow. Technology is taking our jobs and we are helping corporations by cutting out the middleman. Just bought a toaster online? You helped make someone obsolete. It used to be that you would go to a store and someone with knowledge of of what you were buying would help you choose something that would work for your needs. Now if there is someone at that section of the store at all they will usually be young, on minimum wage and with minimum knowledge of the product. Thats sad, because its that knowledge that could be the difference maker in whether they have a job in a few years.

Politicians either don’t realise it yet or they think its not going to get the votes in the same way as blaming the immigrant or the developing world for the disappearing jobs. If you are so good at your job are you really going to lose your job to someone that doesn’t speak English? Yes you might, thanks to someone in Silicon Valley you might lose it to a machine, or software.

If I buy a dress for my wife without going to a store? I’ve just taken work from a saleswoman.

Back in Glasgow, where I am from, they are converting the 100 + year old subway system to run on driverless trains.

Technology is enabling companies to do tasks that people used to do. Companies are realizing they don't have to re-hire people if a machine can do it for them, at least not as many. Maybe trains will be better without human error but our economy is going to be better the more jobs it has in it. Those of us lucky enough to have jobs will pay less taxes if more people are in work. Technology is always going to eliminate jobs regardless. However we have a choice in what jobs are eliminated, if we like human interaction in the things that we do we can choose that until that choice is taken away from us.

Dreaming & Hoping Of Brighter Futures

I am what you might call a frustrated entrepreneur. I do a lot of thinking and I have a lot of business ideas, just not the money to act out on them. Its not that I am all that interested in money, I like money and what it can provide as much as the next man, but it is way down on my list of priorities of what's important in life. My business ideas tend to be more inspired by the spirit of potential, rather than monitory gain for myself. I see things that are being underused or undervalued and sometimes I just want to give it new life.

When I first came to Salt Lake I was surprised at how empty the Downtown area was. There was hardly any shops in the center of the city of any note, and you didn't see too many people walking around it was unlike any city center that I had seen before. It has since been improved by the LDS Church's investment in the up market City Creek shopping mall that opened this year, but for years Salt Lake City had nothing to entice people away from shopping at the malls in the suburbs, other than a few restaurants here and there. That lack of focus on the downtown area by the city planners meant a lot of business just shut up and closed leaving empty buildings in their wake.

Seeing buildings like that just makes my mind work overtime. I see potential instantly. However I also see reality. Getting something to survive in such an environment when others have failed before them is a hard task. Yet my mind will just continue to tick tick tick like a Mumford and Sons song beat until it comes up with something that could bring new life to that building or area of town. It is frustating as hell because I don't have the money to make any of these ideas work. I hate it, sometimes I wish my mind would just shut up and leave me the hell alone. In another life I would be like one of those crazy homeless people you sometimes see,  talking to myself and in the same breath telling myself to 'shut the hell up', all whilst falling over my shopping trolley probably. Thankfully I am not quite that bad, yet, but my mind frustrates nonetheless.

That said I really do have an idea right now that I really would like to make work. There is a building near downtown that has been lying empty for what looks like at least 15 years, probably more, but in truth I have no idea I've only been here 3 and half years myself.  For all intensive purposes its pretty soulless building that in its current state really brings the area around it down. Its just a large empty unit with broken windows that looks like it at one point had an industrial purpose that has long since moved on and the building itself has now lost its purpose. Obviously noone has seen much in it since, not when there is newer more modern alternatives elsewhere.

Yet when I look through those broken windows I don't just see bricks walls, metal rafters in the roof and a huge empty concrete floor. I see people. I see the people that once used that building. I'm like the little boy in The Sixth Sense - I see dead people.Yes the wife really should be worried that I might just be that close to cuckoo land.

Seriously though I'm European in my outlook. I see the ghostly remnants of a buildings past use and it makes me sad when I see a building empty like that and that area of town becoming run down. I don't want to see that building demolished by the city to be replaced by another and then 40/50 years later that replacement building suffering the same fate. This building isn't exactly an architectural masterpiece that needs to be saved but it is here now, it could be reused now that gives something back to its city and neighbours.

Salt Lake City isn't what I would call a big city. It has a little more than a third of the population of Glasgow, and yet it is the biggest city in Utah, and is probably bigger than any city in Idaho or Wyoming, its neighboring States. So with that in mind I think it should have a big city mentality. It should have a downtown area that draws people in from those states.

I see something in that small empty industrial unit that could help give SLC a little kick in that regard. People are getting interested in food like they haven't done for decades. With the internet, foodies have evolved. People want good food. Some want to know where there food is coming from. Many want to know its local. Others want specialised food, or just want to try new things. That empty unit with its large concrete floor could be a market for meat, fruit or veg or fish traders, or a mixture of all three if health and safety allowed. It could predominantly be for local businesses but also bring in a few specialised traders from the neighbouring States to fill up the space. It could be a place where the small spread out SLC Jewish population finds its Kosher food. Where I could find good quality lamb or Bacon. Where South Americans could find producers thats are willing to cater for the demand of specialised cuts of meat. A one stop shop for all the restaurants of the city to visit in the early morning before cooking in the evening.

Whilst it will mostly be for local people to use, it would also help the city to get a reputation as a place to find good food, which could over time help the city grow its reputation in travel and food magazines as well as the blogosphere. That in itself could only help to revive downtown further with time.

A building used for that purpose shouldn't need too much in the way of investment, and it probably won't make my family rich from rental space on the floor to small traders but I can't help thinking that it would make life in downtown that bit more lively and richer as a result.

Now how to get this rolling......Eh!

I love my Wife. I love my food. I am a man of simple pleasures but it doesn't get much more pleasurable than that. Sadly though when my wife and I first got together I realised that she didn't have a healthy relationship with food. It was obvious to me when we went out and about that she loved her food. But it was a love that was guilt ridden at home. A meal at home could consist of a salad that would take a couple of days to eat. I never have been much good at eating like that. Once I get started I tend to have a very healthy appetite, and as much as I love eggs, I don't think I could put up with many more eggs than we had in the first few weeks we were together. It seemed early on in our new relationship my wife was eating for the sake of eating and not for any enjoyment. I could understand why, she worked hard to lose some weight before we met and had no intention of putting it back on. After years of feeling like the fat girl since her teenage years she was finally feeling like she was in a shape that she was proud of and here was I coming along trying to spoil it.

I of course was trying to do no such thing. I just love food. I love my wife. I love seeing her enjoy something as much as I do. I wanted to see her enjoy her food again without vilifying it or having a sort of Jekyll and Hyde dysfunctional relationship with it. Food for me wasn't about counting calories (granted I am flaco) but about flavour, about combinations of foods that we enjoy and crave. I wanted to see my wife enjoy food for its flavour and not worry so much about what calories it may contain. Granted though I don't just love food I love good food, as much as I like eating out I love a good home cooked meal. A meal where I know what's in it. I wanted her to introduce me to Chilean food  and the months that followed she did so. It might have taken a few weeks to finally stop eating eggs at home, but 3 years in my wife's relationship with food as grown in leaps and bounds. Her love for food, and cooking,  has come on so much that she has ambitions of kicking the day job aside in a few years and opening her own restaurant.

Even today though she will have issues with her body. There are good days and bad days and sadly in the bad days she doesn't see how far she has come form her earlier adult years and how she is no longer that girl that she still sees in the mirror. I can be impatient at times when she sees one girl looking back at her and I look to the photographs of her bigger days. She left that body long ago. Whereas there are times when my wife struggles to love her body I love my wife's curves. I would much rather watch her enjoy her food and stay the shape she is than starve herself on eggs or yoghurt and cottage cheese and watch her lose 30 lbs. I would much rather watch her ambitions fly than see them trapped inside a cocoon. I am proud to watch her grow and proud that I have in my small way nurtured it.

Happy Birthday my dear, we're both far from perfect but I'm proud of and love the journey we have taken together the last 3 years or so. Let's keep travelling, improving, growing and aging.

And So The Neighbours Were Right - Almost!

As the leaves begin to fall the garden is starting to finally get some rest bite from the hot days of Summer, it was 89 degrees even just yesterday. When we first moved here all the neighbours said we couldn't grow a garden here.

Too much shade, too much snow in the winter, seasons too short was the reasoning.

That first year they were pretty much right. The garden hadn't been used in any capacity in years other than as an adventure playground for the voles underneath the turf. I spent much of that first year taking out the badly laid turf that the landlord had put in not that long before. I felt somewhat bad about it but the voes had dug tunnels underneath and the was falling down holes here, there and everywhere. It was then we were concerned that the kids weren't eating as well as they should so I thought taking out the grass that was most affected by the voles and making a vegetable garden would be a good idea. The neighbours of course thought it was a crazy idea.

I soon thought so too when I discovered underneath the grass was the same rocks that our driveway was made from. What should be an easy enough job of taking out the grass and adding compost took me a good couple of months of pulling out stone after stone to put it right. That made a short season even shorter. Tomatoes didn't ripen until they were sitting on plates on the kitchen table at the end of October.

This year was going to be better. After all I did much of the preparation work the year before. There wasn't even all that much snow until Spring. Soon, even that small amount disappeared and I was stuck in planting Basil, Cucumber, Peas, Spinach etc to get the garden filled with cold weather crops while the Tomatoes and Peppers were growing under a light in the spare bedroom. Two to three weeks into the Spring weather and Summer temperatures were here already. The basil not fully underway yet, disappointingly curled up and died. The Spinach thrived. The peas started off well enough before they decided screw this was beans weather. The few peas we did get were really tasty but ultimately were just a tease of what could have been. The cucumbers didn't do anything. Again the cabbages started off well enough but as the temperatures got hotter and hotter and summer went on and on they too seemed to be coming to nothing. One cabbage here, and another there would be like a magnet for white fly and would get pulled by the roots to save the other crops.

Neighbours 2 and 0.

It got to the stage that I was feeling guilty using so much water at night when the rain wasn't falling. I would water one  part of the garden one night, and another part another night but no where near enough considering the mercury was hitting between 95 and 104 daily.

Then finally late August the night time temperatures started to ease. Thats when the cabbages that had survived the whitefly attacks began to grow once more. Beets and Shard matured. Carrots were lifted and soon discovered to have so much more flavour than bought carrots that I was chastised for not planting more.

Then worthy of a Mormon miracle Cucumbers I had long given up on started to appear. Now I'm wondering what the hell to do with so much cucumber.

 Zinnias

 

 Cauliflower

 Cucumber - yes cucumber. Sikkim cucumber to be precise. Yet to taste this asian cucumber but it should be an interesting change.

 Pattypan squash.

 Pepper

 

Parsley

Seems that despite this long hot summer you can grow a garden here after all. Lets call it - Neighbours 2, Me 1, for now. I already have my instructions for next year. More carrots, more shallots, and that i'm sure is just a start and with a bit more experience with the conditions I should be able to call it a draw next year.

Summer Is Over

The long Hot Utah Summer was a struggle to get through but now that that the cooler temperatures are returning  the days are a lot more pleasant. No matter the season we are blessed to live where we do. Drive 15 minutes one way and we are in Downtown Salt Lake, drive 10 minutes the other way and we can take the dog for a walk in puppy heaven.

Actually we can do that pretty much by walking outside beyond our back garden but this area that we like to walk is exceptionally beautiful, and the dog practically cries as we get closer to our destination. We don't know whether to laugh at that or not, she really is a pathetic little mutt.

  The Fall colours definitely arrived earlier this year, with the long hot summer and no rain many of the trees in the slopes behind the house changed in early August when the trees just seemed to give up. Thatsaid there is still plenty of colour around, it just might be over sooner than last year.

 I love the reflection of the leaves in the water here, so much I had to capture it twice.

 

With late evening strolls like this just on our doorstep why would we want to live in the suburbs with all their identikit boxes and no trees.

Now if only we could get the money together to buy some of the vacant land that we have our eye on here here life truly would be sweet.

I wasn't too surprised that the Belarussian Shot Putter was stripped of the Gold Medal for doping. When I turned on the recording and watched the putt being thrown in the air I was seriously questioning the accuracy of the commentator in regards to whether I was watching the men's or the women's event. It was only when I saw the next contestant step up that I realised the commentator was right and I was wrong. It wasn't the haircut, or the face that threw me, it was the build. I really thought she just looked like a big burly man. So when it turned out that she failed a drugs test it wasn't a surprise in the least.

Finding out that the winner of the long distance walk from Beijing couldn't defend his Gold medal because of a failed drug test now that is just ridiculous, almost pathetic. I know its an endurance sport, but come on what happened to good old fashioned practice?