Thursday, February 26, 2009

Too much money

I ride the Patco Hi-Speedline train from Jersey to Philly just about every work day.

The most this train can charge you from the farthest Jersey station to any Philly station is 5.40 for a round trip ticket.

The new plastic "Freedom" card as pictured above can hold money and acts like a bank for you.

Generally I put about a hundred-bucks on the card and it takes me about 5-6 weeks to deplete that hundred dollars.

I am always thinking about HOW rich we really are.

How embarrassed I am by our richness. Last night I was talking to one of my best friends, Tony and I asked him how many people died from the whole peanut-butter salmonella thing of recent months. He said, "six", it was nine.
Then I asked how many people die worldwide of starvation every day....he pondered and pondered....thinking.
"3,000" was his guess and 30,000 is the answer.

But, I digress.....when you swipe the Freedom Card in the machine it tells you the remaining total and from no fault of my own you always get to see the balance of the persons in front of you.

Today I saw a balance of: 616.00

If this person rode every day, five days a week for the highest fare possible that would be TWENTY-THREE WEEKS worth of rides.

Can we not find better use of our money as a whole?

meanwhile the cripple on the corner cries out "nickels for your pity"

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