It was raining heavily when I went to sleep. I got some shakuhachi practice in. It was dry and I packed 7 things. If I'm listing more, I have to keep right on top of shipping.
Ken and I also talked about the economics of this place last night. I did a bit more math just now, and basically anything over 6 grand in the running total Ebay calculates is profit. That's right, this place has to make $72k a year just to break even. I'm not worried for now though because I've got the number up around 8 and a half right now. And of the 7 things I'm mailing out today, $90 came in due to things I picked up for free.
I asked Ken about how much it costs to operate this place because I almost feel like I could carry this place on my own just on the stuff I find but I guess not - the rent is $3200. I think the largest of the storage spaces at the storage place are $400 or $500 a month and it's a lot of space. And I'd not have to pay more than $1000 to rent a room around here. Besides, if I had to go on my own I'd just bunk up at Tom's and pay him rent and I doubt he'd want more than $500. So yes, I could go on my own, selling on Ebay, if I had to.
I headed out a bit after 3. It was just barely sprinkling. As I got to the post office, the park and general areas was just teeming with zombies. I didn't feel OK about leaving my bike out there, even locked, because those fuckers would probably clean out the saddle bags and I'd lose a lot of valuable stuff. So I took the bike inside and no one said anything. I went in/out by the side, handcapped, entrance and as is usual for San Jose, the door opening thing doesn't work. I was able to use it OK as a usual door, but they really fucking hate disabled people here and it's why I see so few of them - other than among the homeless population which has some and I doubt the disabled live long on the street.
I did my banking and then, as it was sprinkling more generously, went right over to the Amazon place for bubble mailers. That went OK and I got some, but there was a zombie parked at the "island' where most of the bags end up as there are 3 trash receptacles there. I tried to work around the zombie and the damned thing didn't move. I don't know whatever the fuck it was doing but one thing is was doing was stinking to high hell. It was a stink like live seashells left out to rot. Phew! "Do yourself a favor and run yourself through a car wash" I said to it as I left.
Next was Nijiya and they had a sale on Sapporo beer, a 24-pack for $20 although it was more like $25 with the tax and CRV. So I got one of those and a bunch of other things.
I got back here, put things away, and set back out with the bike trailer and step stool to check out the medical place where I got a few "meh" things, and looked in the dumpsters around here which were thoroughly picked over. But at least I know I checked everything. Now I can stay in for the weekend and listen to the rain.
Last night I thought of something. People who call themselves capitalists with a straight face believe that if there were just no regulations, the market would sort itself out and necessary things would be cheap. In the ensuing free-for-all, things from insulin to bike tires would drop in price as producers competed with each other. This is their simple-minded story that even I believed in long ago. Instead, what would happen is exactly what we see happening: Companies collude with each other, monopolies and price-fixing become the order of the day, artificial scarcities are put into place, etc. And what stops at least most of this isn't less government but more.
If you had a Leviathan of a government in place, you could actually have something close to the libertarian dream. I'm sure Marx and Engels wrote all about this.
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