Tag: local monopolies

A Tip or two on answering the phone

You get a telephone call that looks like it could be from someone you know – as it shows the same area code as yours or a number you kinda’ think you remember.

Should you answer the call?

In either case, probably not. These may be folks fishing for your data and information, which they can use against your best interest or attempts to sell you something you may not want, nor need. And despite what the phone manufacturers and companies say, the apps on phones don’t perform as claimed. Privacy, silenced calls, blocked senders, etc., are tied to other apps that do not work properly when these apps are applied.

There’s a reason for it: The phone companies are making a profit on the calls you receive, as well as those you originate.

But if you don’t answer the phone, sometimes, you get fussed at by a friend or a business acquaintance.

There is an answer:

Only answer your phone when the incoming call is from someone in your Contacts list or it has a caller’s name associated with it.

When you receive a call from a name associated with a phone number in your Contact’s list the name and number shows on your phone. It also works this way on all of your outgoing calls when you associate your name with your telephone number. Your name
and number will display to whomever you make a phone call.

Of course, IF you’re making a lot of crank calls yourself, it may not be such a good idea. But it is something, however, that every business seeking additional customers should do.  And people who want to talk with their friends and relatives.

Business firms, medical, financial and professional offices and services spend thousands – sometimes millions – of dollars to get their names (advertising) in front of people. But they fail to take advantage of this relatively free advertising venue, which is a service to their customers and / or clients.

Why?

Or why not? Open your phone, go to Settings, then Phone. and enter your name and number.

In this age of increasing spam, phishing, ransom and malware attacks, you and your clients and customers not only want to know but need to know who is calling them.

Like a growing number of other people, IF you call and I can’t answer at the that time, and you don’t leave a message, I’m not wasting my time to call you back.

The best option for cybersecurity is just don’t cooperate with those firms that don’t want you to know who is calling.

 

Why would anyone want to talk to an unknown person at an unknown telephone number for an unknown reason?

In this digital age, the old bromide that “curiosity is a sign of intelligence” is set aside by the one reminding us that “curiosity killed the cat.”

Since voters allowed elected politicians to exchange the Private Enterprise System for State Capitalism (the partnership between Big Business and Big Government), customers, clients and taxpayers are treated as resources, instead of the firms and government being a resource for the customer or client – or the taxpayer.

 

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city utility rates are assessed by local monopolies          

 

Our local utility rates for energy, gas, AT&T, Suddenlink/Optimum/Altice (whatever the TV cable company is) are local monopolies and each pays a Franchise Fee to the City of Paris to operate here.  Usually, the franchise fee is based on a percentages of the rates the company charges consumers.

Of course, the City of Paris has a local monopoly on water and sewer utilities, and trash pickup (at least, until it’s privatized). And just as with the city’s utilities, council members have the responsibility to approve or disapprove every rate increase requested by these Franchisees. 

(Over the years that the Paris Chamber of Commerce has existed never, to our knowledge, has there ever been a request for a rate decrease.)

This means that every time a rate goes up, so does the income to the city from the franchise fee.  It is a hidden tax sort of thing.

This doesn’t get a lot of publicity.  Perhaps, because local media receives “advertising revenue” from these local monopolies and those who benefit from what the monopolies do or don’t do.  The news then gets colored by local government representatives, who report to the media what they’re doing (or not doing), until you don’t know what or who to believe. 

These factors mean that what you read and hear about local rates – or even how things may work locally – will not usually be found in columns about the need for open public information and full public disclosure. It is how Freedom of the Commercial Business Press works today. 

Anyway, we brag about our “low cost of living” when compared with other Texas’ cities. 

Yeah.  Chicka-boom-boom! 

Our “low cost of living” is because we have hundreds – thousands – of buildings older than oak, and they sell c-h-e-a-p! 

Look at the houses, neighborhood after neighborhood, block after block, and you understand why housing costs are so low.  You will also understand why retirees aren’t flocking to Paris like English Sparrows looking for a nesting site.

What you will not understand is why we brag about it.

While there is a reason for our low housing costs, there are no reasons why our city utility rates and costs should be among the highest in Texas.  (Along with our tax rates, with the sales tax requiring $8.25 cents on every $100 we spend.) 

We should be striving to hold down franchise fees, which include utilities:  Electricity, gas, cable, as well as City of Paris water, sewer, and trash pickup.

Every time the City allows a utility rate increase the less fortunate are penalized; requiring more of the widow’s mite. 

Of course, Paris is not alone in doing this.  It is the way politics generally works.  The least powerful individuals among us are the ones who most feel every increase in utility rates, gas prices, and taxes that dig deeper and deeper into their income. 

Cities, like Paris, raise city utility rates – not because it is the right thing to do – but because their citizens all need or must have what the utility monopolies are selling. And they are far easier to approve than an increase in property taxes.  Plus, people tend to blame the utility company when they get the bill, not the ones who approved the rate increases.

If Paris ever gets really serious about being the kind of city you want to live in, we’ll stop rubber-stamping every request for another rate increase. As we lose population, we should be reducing or – at least – holding the line on spending.

In the meantime, other companies would likely be happy to offer a lower rate for the same or similar utilities, if we invited them.  It might, at least, improve service.

Is there a law that says we can’t at least get bids?    

                

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