What's Tony Thinking

Some Impressions from the Road

I met up with my daughter, Laura, in Minneapolis the day after Thanksgiving. She was driving cross country from Greenville, South Carolina to Seattle. So I was on board for Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho and Washington. (North Dakota sky at right, can you find the alligator?)

Here are a couple impressions from the trip, starting with making airline reservations to get from Seattle to Minneapolis, and doing motel reservations for the road.

Impression # 1. It’s all about “upgrades” and “dynamic pricing.” Sounds so cool!

Start with the plane ticket. Before, during and after you get one you are pelted on-line with “upgrade opportunities,” meaning not just for first or business class, but for “premium seats” (in coach) with 2.5″ more room in which to “sit back and relax” as airline pilots instruct one to do. On hearing that I mutter, “Hey buddy, I’d like to see you ‘sit back and relax’ in this seat.”

Buying airline seats is now like buying seats for a baseball or football game. The closer you are to the action and the more comfortable the seat, the more you pay. I used to hope for an “exit row” seat so as not to have my knees in my chest. Back then, I’d even gladly take the middle seat of the exit row. Forget that. Exit row seats require an “upgrade.” What next? An upgrade for toilet access?

“Dynamic pricing” is not only airline tickets, but also for lodging along the way: hotels, airbnbs, etc. Prices for a room fluxuate depending on demand, date and location. One price today, another tomorrow. No such thing anymore as the fixed price of a room or ticket. It’s dynamic! “Make your reservation now — only two rooms left at this price!”

What do “upgrades” and “dynamic pricing” have in common? They are both really terrific euphemisms!* Moreover, they are in service of the big euphemism, one that now describes commerce and maybe life in America: “profit maximization.” Every business is apparently asking, “how can we extract a few more nickels and dimes — actually twenties and fifties — from every customer every time they turn around?” And they’re asking, “How can we hire the cheapest labor and provide the fewest benefits?”

“Profit maximization?” Not too many years ago we called that “greed” or “avarice,” old good names for one of the “seven deadly sins.” Or maybe “price gouging.”

The upshot is that travel, like a lot of things in the land of the free and home of the brave is short on grace and graciousness. A big contrast, by the way, from our recent experience of travel in Japan, where there really is a genuine graciousness to the whole experience.

Impression # 2. There are two kinds of towns in America today.

There are those desperate looking towns, with empty downtowns, where trailer parks and mobile homes are the main housing stock, like Forsyth, Montana or Wallace, Idaho. And then there are places like Bozeman, Montana and Bend, Oregon where there are beautiful, stylish homes popping up like mushrooms. And, turns out, many of those big, beautiful homes are only occupied two weeks of the year, if that.

A wide gap there. How have we gotten to this place where a growing number of people have four or five really gorgeous homes that they use not very often, while a huge number of people can’t afford to even get one to start on home ownership? Could have something to do with “profit maximization?” To the extent that owning a home is a defining characteristic of “The American Dream,” it appears that that dream is, for many, dead. Except that is for those who just keep dreaming of another home to add to their collection.

Impression # 3. Gas prices are dynamic too.

They ran from $2.38 to $2.89 a gallon in Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana, a little higher in Idaho. And then you hit Washington. It’s all more than $4 a gallon in the Evergreen State, basically twice as much as Minnesota. Well, I just hope the money from our carbon tax is actually doing some good and not just creating feel-good programs and green-washing.

Not saying it isn’t getting real stuff done, though I did look for some outcome-focused reporting on the Jay Inslee Memorial Carbon Tax when I-2117 was recently on the ballot. Didn’t find much. Beyond that, higher gas prices are a regressive tax, hitting the low income and working classes hardest (the people in trailer parks).

I know, this has all been pretty grumpy. Sorry, but at my age I’m permitted to be curmudgeonly, and I intend to make the most of it.

Still, let’s end on some positive notes.

We saw buffalo roaming the range in Theodore Roosevelt National Park in North Dakota. That was cool.  The rest stops in Montana were really nice.

Visiting dear friends along the way was a blessing. First Sunday of Advent worship at Pilgrim UCC in Bozeman was wonderful. We lucked out on the weather. No blinding snowstorms or white outs.

And America is still big and beautiful.

*euphemism: a mild or indirect word or expression substituted for one considered to be too harsh or blunt when referring to something unpleasant or embarrassing.

A.k.a “bullshit”