Sunday, December 7, 2008

An Attack from a Soldier in the "Save the Water" Army and An Economist Responds

I'm in San Francisco and I'm staying at the downtown Hilton.

Immediately after posting my story discussing the speculation about a gold shortage, I decided to head down to the Hilton gym. It's a pretty decent workout facility and also has a good steam room. I took my razor with me because I like to shave right after coming out of the steam room.

After a quick workout and steam, I headed to the sink area in the men's locker room to shave. The faucets were those complicated types where it is difficult to tell hot from cold, and full power from low power. So I lather up, start shaving, and I keep the water running. After a couple of strokes, I would put the razor under the water to wash it off.

A couple sinks down from me is a short guy, who says to me in a mousy voice, "Excuse me, are you going to keep that water running."

I am not Italian, but I can pass. Friends tell me I have a "Are you talkn' to me" look that could have gotten me a roll on the Sopranos, when when someone is not minding his own business and irritating me. I may have had that look on when I responded to him, "What?" My New York accent probably filled more of the picture for him.

The mousy voice replied, "You are wasting a lot of water."

My reply, "I am not wasting water. I am using it. If there was a shortage of water, the Hilton would start charging for it. I would be more than happy to discuss this in detail with you."

Now at this point I'm thinking of where I can get a pen and paper to draw some supply and demand curves. The guy meanwhile quickly heads back to his locker, gets dressed and bolts.

While all this was going on, I spied a well groomed man, good hair cut etc., taking all this in from the locker area. He's chuckling to himself. I figure him for an investment banker, maybe even Goldman Sachs. I know he gets what I'm talking about. Hell, if he's from Goldman, he more than gets it. Their philosophy is something like, if it's not nailed down it is yours.

But, is this what it is going to be like during the Obama Era? Little pip squeaks are going to be emboldened to harass those that aren't politically correct and actually understand basic economics? I can handle these Obama punks, but I pray for those of you who don't look like you could get a roll as a made man in one of the Godfather films.

3 comments:

  1. I am not Italian, but I can pass. Friends tell me I have a "Are you talkn' to me" look that could have gotten me a roll on the Sopranos...

    Do you look tough enough to get butter with the roll?

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  2. Not only do I get butter with the roll, but it is never frozen so that you can't spread it over the roll.

    ReplyDelete