• BUSINESSES RUN BY A “CRAZY THING CALLED A BUDGET.” The City of Long Beach, California, with businesses struggling from among the nation’s toughest pandemic restrictions, opted to pass a well-intentioned ‘Hero Pay’ measure to increase wages of essential grocery workers by $4/hr. The immediate result was Kroger brand promptly closing four retail stores – 30% of locations serving the community. Los Angeles City Supervisors have now proposed a similar ‘Hazard Pay’ Ordinance with $5/hr pay increase for grocery & drug store employees. “Imagine being as disconnected from reality as to watch a policy literally backfire, which will lead to the layoff of dozens if not hundreds or thousands of workers, reduced hours for those who are not laid off (along with greater responsibilities), the reduction of products accessibility (from likely closing of other stores) and other horrible outcomes, but still enacting the policy anyway.”  [RED STATE – 2/2/21]
• AT LEAST ROBOT DELIVERY SERVICES WILL CONTINUE EXPANDING. “Contactless delivery has proved to be one of the most reliable ways to protect vulnerable populations and enable social distancing during the pandemic,” as well as dramatically reducing cost of labor & vehicles. Starship Delivery alone has now served over a million customers in five countries (including UCLA campus) with six-wheeled robots which users can track via interactive app, for a $2 delivery fee. [INTERNET RETAILING – 1/27/21]
• AMERICA’S FIRST 3D-PRINTED HOUSE listed on Zillow at $300K is three bedrooms/ two baths and half the price of comparable new homes on the north shore of Long Island. Confirming the cost efficiency of concrete on-site construction, the company builder has targeted California as its next territory. [FUTURISM – 2/1/21]
• PRESIDENTIAL ‘EXECUTIVE ORDERS’ are effectively ‘pseudo laws, as explained by the American Bar Association: “a signed, written & published directive that manages operations of the federal government which have the force of law, much like Regulations issued by federal agencies. They require no approval from Congress, and Congress cannot simply overturn them, although Congress  may pass legislation that might make it difficult, or even impossible, to carry out the order, such as removing funding. Only a sitting U.S. President may overturn an existing executive order by issuing another executive order to that effect.”
• “SOCIALLY INEPT TECH OLIGARCHS NOW WIELD UNPRECENTED POWER to censor political thought & speech, and are transforming America into an authoritarian surveillance state, silencing & demonizing in partnership with the new majority Party… It doesn’t matter which side of politics you are on, the fact that Facebook (leading the way), a social media platform that most people use to talk to family & friends has now been transformed into a vast left-wing propaganda machine is a chilling abuse of power… Zuckerberg, a gormless geek, has appointed a global Oversight Board of retired politicians and human-rights activists paid to rubber stamp its crackdown on ‘domestic terrorists,’ aka conservatives… Its new mission includes a mantra of ‘equity’ – a dangerous Marxist doctrine that means equality of outcome, not equality of opportunity, and which led to millions of deaths in totalitarian regimes in the 20^th” [NEW YORK POST – 1/31/21]
• THOUGHTS FOR THE WEEK:    Measurements over the last decade, reported by McKinsey, show that by age 50, time spent with friends is less than 10% of time spent alone.