So I met a wonderful man this weekend. Only 4 years younger but thoroughly enjoying life just like me. Fan of Muse (point) AND 98.7 (Point!) has all boys (point) NOT a stitch of fat on his body (point) lol.. and an intensely engaging personality (point!) Oh, but the best part! Finds me wonderfully humorous, incredibly sexy and a joy to spend time with. (um, duh… point, point!)
We covered a lot of fun ground. And I got so involved in talking with an enthusiastic
In & Out Beverly Hills!
audience we chatted for over 2 hours. Made me late… to getting stood up! hahaha.. (but his excuse was surfing.. and well, I ALWAYS forgive a man who surfs!)
When I told Mr. Engaging about my parenting strategies.. chore sticks, outsourcing my work to them, adults-in-training philosophy.. he just looks at me with his jaw dropped… “Brilliant!” His kids are younger than mine & he’s seeing all the possibilities of adopting my ideas. (umm.. egotistical point.. hee hee hee)
One of the things we discussed was Solar. Turns out he’s in the industry and I was spouting about that before I knew that piece of information and he clarified one thing that was always baffling to me. See, right now there are two solar options. You can pay the money and put solar on your house & get your electricity for almost free. Or you can let someone else put it on your house at no cost to you and you pay them a reduced rate for your electricity while they sell the excess back to the city.
Now for a long time I wondered, “Why the hell isn’t the electric company doing that itself! Putting it on homes for free & selling electricity to us at half the costs!” Why is there a middle man involved? And T explained it to me with the perfect terminology. So clear, I just had to share it!
Outsourcing.
Wait, wait.. keep reading! See the electric companies don’t really know a lot about installing & maintaining solar. They are big conglomerates who know about distributing power & well, answering to shareholders! And when something is NOT (and this is the perfect phrase) a “Company’s Core Competency” it makes more financial sense to outsource it to a company where that competency lies.
I’m sitting there saying.. OMG.. that makes complete sense! Plus not only does this middle company with the Core Competency get the work.. it becomes a burgeoning industry that is creating jobs as it grows. In that way, outsourcing is a wonderful boon.
When its done right.
So we talk more about various ways outsourcing has been terribly or perfectly used. I do manage NOT to bring up the sitcom Outsourced! Haha.
Then I explain to him my theory about how shareholders are what’s ruining our economy. How if a company DIDN’T go public, if instead it focused its profits on building the business, making a quality product and trickling down the profits to the employees, society would be better off. Once a company whore’s itself out to shareholders by going public.. it seems to become ALL about the bottom line, making profit any way it can.. because its beholden to its new pimp.. The Shareholders. (And sadly WE are those pimps.)
THAT is how we create a system that hires CEO’s for HUGE salaries and DISGUSTING bonuses with their sole goal of bringing lots of profit to the Shareholders. In any way they can.
And I point out my shining example of a successful company NOT going public. In and Out Burger. Hourly wage starts at $10 an hour and Managers get a percentage of sales. I’ve heard there’s a lot of perks but judging from my In & Out its a great, clean place for teens to work. They are family owned & let the profits trickle down to a GOOD, cheap burger from a quality establishment.
Plus I just love the concept of a burger “animal style” hee hee hee.