u/Olderpostie

There seems to be a vast dichotomy in New York State. The greater New York City area has continued to grow over the past 50 years, certainly not by leaps and bounds, but most of the other urban areas have stagnated or even lost people. I am thinking of such places as Schenectady, Watertown, Binghamton, Syracuse, Rochester, Niagara Falls and Buffalo.

Is it all due to the so-called "rust belt" economics? Why wouldn't any of the big players of the NYC financial and insurance businesses consider relocating office complexes to any of these places for much lower cost real estate and lower salaries required for a good standard of living? Much less stressful for all than the big apple.

I was in the hospital emergency room today, after a bike spill leading to knee damage and abrasions. I was asked the last time I had a tetanus shot, but could not recall. I then remembered that Ontario has an e-health medical record program to track medical treatments and medications. So, I asked the nurse attending to me and she said they have no access to such.

Many years ago, after repeated visits to emergency with my father-in-law, I saw the value of that. Especially elderly people, who most always have a lot of meds, it takes so long to document these and the dosage. And, in our ethnic city, I am sure the communication must be stressful for all. Everything that draws out the emergency admissions process is bad for the patient, and those behind in queue.

Does e-,health not catalog all treatments and meds? The nurse I was talking to seemed to be uninformed.

Since 1970, groceries have slightly exceeded general inflation. Groceries have increased at a 3.93% annual rate compared to 3.79 for the CPI. Yet, the basic foundation of the food supply, farm gate prices, have fallen far short of the general inflation. Agriculture has really been a model of productivity.

Let us look at a simple case in point. Bread. The typical price of a loaf of basic bread has gone from 37 cents in 1970 to $3.25 today, a factor of 8.7. Yet, wheat has gone from $1.92 per bushel in 1970 to $5.55 today, a factor of 2.9. A bushel of wheat provides for 50 loaves, then and now. So, the $0.37 1970 loaf had four cents worth of wheat, and the $3.25 2026 loaf has about 11 cents. Such a small amount.

Now, looking at processing and distribution, it would seem those parts of the food chain were amenable to significant productivity improvement due to automation and computerization of clerical work, labelling and the like. Yet, the loaf of bread has not benefitted, price wise. Have food processors or supermarket chains seen windfall profits? Not apparently. So, it is somewhat of a mystery to me why society is not seeing lower food prices in real terms.

Three times since the dawn of the war President Trump has raised the plan to escort the trapped ships through the straight by use of Navy ships. These plans never gain traction.

Superficially, it seems logical. But, maybe more logical back in the time of blocking being accomplished by a navy. In this era of missiles, does escorting really work? Iran has those, but longer a real navy.

Secondly, do naval vessels expose themselves to risk of damage by missiles, or are naval ships constructed so heavily played that missiles do only superficial damage?

I feel for all those who are seeing such a hit to their budgets.

But, this is also an opportunity to reevaluate options. Years ago, I shifted to GO from driving from Streetsville to Toronto. It typically took an added 30 to 45 minutes to use transit.

BUT - I could relax, even snooze. And with the era of the smart phone, I could also tend to work emails. (I was a salaried employee, not in the clock .) You cannot do those things while driving.

I don't know if most commuters consider those benefits. I think the present time would be a good one for GO to do an advertising campaign to push those aspects that car commuters may overlook.

I find my electric bill confusing. There are two parts that seem clear enough. First, the "Energy Charge". Though split into three tiers, it is simply the amount of kilowatt-hours multiplied by the amount consumed in that category. Secondly the "Administrative and Regulatory" charge, which is a flat monthly amount.

But, then there are two confusing ones. "Delivery charge" varies with volume used, but not proportionally. "Debt retirement charge" also seems to vary by consumption, but not proportionally. I don't understand the concept of how my consumption changes the "delivery". The cables, transformers and the like do not require more or less maintenance cost if my consumption goes up or down. Same for the debt. Whether I use a little or a lot, the debt servicing cost is fixed.

Do most people really understand their power bill? I remember doing books for my Dad on the farm about 55 years ago. The power bill was very simple. There was a small "Meter Charge", like around a dollar. Then the rest of the bill was just power consumption at one rate per kwh. How things have changed! But, I doubt customers are any smarter.