There is a company that started in Texas called Bucee’s. It has
grown pretty significantly in Texas and lately is branching out to other
states. It is not a truck stop, yet it is a place where you can stop get gas, food,
an enormous variety of souvenirs, trinkets, road trip supplies, t-shirts with
their logo, they tout their bathrooms being the cleanest and more. It isn’t a
store that sells primarily necessities. It is quite an impressive size store
that derives most of its business from people traveling. Or you might think
that based on locations, however quite a few people go to one that is close to
their house.
I use them as sort of a tongue in cheek marker for road
trips. They are positioned near large cities in Texas, but mostly about 30-40
miles away so I say if you pass one on the highway going out of town you are now
officially on a road trip according to my logic. Their target audience is basically working and
middle class families on the go.
So what has this got to do with a recession. There are now
billboards where they are advertising 5% off the whole store. So this says to
me sales may be slumping a bit. Most retailers have sales, however when the
whole store goes on sale even a small amount something is usually amiss with
total sales. The billboards lean into the idea that they are inflation fighting,
but I am not buying it. I am not saying they are struggling, however, signs
like these might mean leaner times are coming for the consumer economy. This is
a very popular store where they are located and can be overwhelmed by crowds. I
have made that stop on occasion over the last few years and it can be busy. There
is always a line at the register which is a good sign for the company. I haven’t
been in a few months so seeing this billboard makes me wonder. I am not about
to make a special trip just to find out, yet if you are reading the tea leaves
this billboard isn’t screaming optimism.
And as you know someone drove the House of Representatives
off a large cliff. There are many culprits and suspects, yet generally there is
a problem. I know some will say that the Democrats aren’t the problem, yet they
are part of the disease as a whole. There is an article in from Time by Lee Drutman
titled: “The only way to fix Congress”. First of all that is a bit presumptuous.
Second Mr. Drutman mainly addresses the well known problem of the two party
system is marching further and further to the right and left based House
districts being safe for the respective partly. And as you know means the real
election is in the primary for most House seats. Mr. Drutman works through this
premise for the first half of his piece and discussing a bit of the current
situation and history.
He then suggests that we should adopt a proportional
representation system to elect House members. I have seen this discussed before
and I certainly understand how it works. I am just curious about it. I think
Mr. Drutman is also in favor of expanding the number of political parties which
you know I am very in favor. The question is how do we break up the monopoly of
the two party system. Do we sue them via the Federal Trade Commission? Probably
won’t work, but at this point anything is worth a try. Going back to his
proposal I am not sure how it would get implemented. You could still have just
the two party system and maybe obtain better representation. I do not know, yet
he tends to think so.
I think in some ways what he is proposing or the concept is
somewhat done in the primary elections or at least it use to be. The primary
candidates for President would receive delegates based on the percentage or
some other formula used so it wasn’t winner take all. I think that might have
changed, not sure. I do not vote for the two parties in an election, however I
treat the primaries differently and have voted in Democrat and Republican primaries,
mainly for the entertainment factor. I have been to precinct meetings and one
year ended up being the person to help with the math to determine how many
delegates each candidate received to go to the County or State totals. This was
years ago so do not remember the exact details. I do remember it was a convoluted
formula. The problem with voting in a primary is you receive inordinate amounts
of campaign solicitations from various candidates from that party. It becomes
way too much of a cost to opt out of it all just for one day of watching people
behave like crazed baboons to sway how the results are determined and especially
since it is a fixed formula. Or it was, not sure nowadays.
We do need to change processes up since the House is
definitely at the bottom of a cliff right now. The idea in Mr. Durtman’s
article won’t change our current disaster, yet it is a consideration for the present
moving into the future.
And for me as always, we do need new major parties and maybe
some different electoral maps.
Cheers
No comments:
Post a Comment