Everybody Wins When Everybody Makes Money.
I was sitting by the entrance to The Baltimore Hilton exactly one week ago smoking one of the few cigarettes I allotted myself for the day. (I officially quit on May 1 and thanks but we’ll get to that slain dragon another time.) I was wondering what to expect that day at the annual LegalShield convention when Todd walked over to me and asked me for a cigarette. I gave him the pack containing my two remaining cigarettes and told him to have one now and one later. He thanked me profusely and smiled. “I just need a little more money and I can buy breakfast,” he said with a grin of broken teeth proudly holding up a dollar bill. I took a long drag on my cigarette and said, “C’mon, let’s get you your breakfast right now.” I know he heard me but it seemed he didn’t understand what I said or just didn’t believe me. “C’mon,” I repeated, “Follow me.” as I entered the posh marble lobby. I smiled and nodded at the security guard on duty who took note of my homeless companion but said nothing. Across the cavernous lobby, right past the front desk and to the Starbucks outpost. “Pick anything you want.” He went for a can of soda. “I’m not buying you a can of soda. Pick any juice you want. It’s better for you.” Todd chose a bottle of orange juice. Turning to the food in the glass case he asked me if he could get a danish. I proposed a breakfast sandwich. “It’s better for you… protein, vitamins, minerals…” He went with a bacon egg and cheese. I proposed coffee. He asked for a small coffee. I told the clerk to give him a venti. $24 room charge for me, his best meal all day (week? month?) for him. Everybody looked at me with alternating looks of love, respect and/or maybe admiration.
His feast in hand I showed him how to make his coffee to his liking with cream, milk, sugar, cinnamon, etc. The usual “fixins bar” for the coffee connoisseur.
I told him I had to get my own breakfast, blessed him and wished him a great day then turned to head to the all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet fifty feet away at the lobby bar/restaurant.
“Hey, wait. Here’s my dollar.” That was his bottom dollar. All he had collected that day. I smiled and told him I didn’t want his money. I just wanted him to enjoy his breakfast.
I never saw Todd again and probably never will. But I’ll never forget him.
I’d rather feed the hungry than address food insecurity. George Carlin cracked the code on societal euphemisms long ago and I subscribe to many of his points of view.
So you can imagine my outrage at being told I had to throw away a garbage bag of fresh cooked food at my Las Vegas Aviators opening day party just over a month ago. All the pictures I posted on Facebook, Instagram, X, etc. told the world of the good time had by all. Here’s the story of what happened when the party was over…
The Aviators lost, alas, and my suite hostess walked in accompanied by an assistant holding a big black trash bag. “Everybody had a good time?”, she chirped with a smile. Yes everything was great… “Great! We’ll start cleaning up the suite,” she said as her colleague opened the trash bag wide and started to dump the first of many trays of untouched food.
I stopped him with a tray in his hand.
“Wait a minute! What the hell is he doing?” I blared. My smiling hostess informed me they’re cleaning the suite. SOP at the end of a game.
“What about all this leftover food?!” Everybody in the room – my guests and ballpark staff – instantly saw what was coming. Gal Smiley informed me all uneaten foot must be thrown away, all unopened beverages returned to inventory.
“There must be enough food here for 20-25 meals!” I bellowed, quickly inspecting the piles of hot dogs, hamburgers, buns, toppings and side dishes. It all has to go she burbled, or some similar nonsense.
“I paid for this food and it’s coming with me!” No it isn’t, she says.
“Bullshit! I bought and paid for this food and it isn’t being thrown away! Restaurants allow customers to take food home.” She rejected my infallible logic, leaning into company policy.
At this point two cops entered the room. Not security guards, two members of Las Vegas Metro PD stood there silently. Yeah, I was shouting and angry. Who wouldn’t be?
In a flash of insight I realized I could call for backup of my own. “I’m calling my lawyer!” I trumpeted. Sardonic response from silly girl’s supervisor, who joined the party “On a Sunday? he said with a smirk.
“I have 24×7 access to an attorney. I have LegalShield.” I said as my iPhone’s speaker told the room the lawyer’s phone was ringing. Smug smart ass stopped smiling.
Nobody called my bluff. That’s great news for them because I wasn’t bluffing. Supervisor de-escalated by having me sign a waiver form.
Me and my mom packed up all the food into a big box then claimed my car at the valet, a different manager accompanied us to my car carrying the box the whole way. When my Lincoln pulled up I tipped the valet then turned to hand the man with the box a twenty. He wouldn’t accept it. “No sir, I’m happy to help you do G-d’s work.”
A struggling family of five – papa bear, mama bear and three baby bears didn’t have to worry about meals for days.
One small victory in a losing war.
“We fought a war on poverty, and poverty won.” ―
President Reagan spoke to America in a 1986 radio address and laid out just how nefarious poverty is and how insidious public programs have proven to be. That was just 22 short years since President Johnson launched ‘the war on poverty’. Fifty years after the war on poverty was declared, the problem was objectively analyzed and a comprehensive, cogent solution was published – and largely ignored. Now, 60 years later the problem has only gotten worse in every possible way.
The answer to the poverty problem is simple; put people to work in any occupation suitable to their current level of education, expertise etc and set them free from the prison of poverty.
Empower them with education through classes on personal finance, home economics, etc. and give them a long runway by which they can grow personally and professionally and really take off.
Capitalism, economics, etc. is not a zero sum game. Nobody has to lose so somebody else can win. A rising tide lifts all boats, actually.