Why Corporations will take over the world

At the risk of pointing out that which is painfully obvious to the rest of the intelligent, civilized world I'm going to tell you why Corporations will win. Of course there are the complaints about hostile actions, monopolies, and all that stuff, but I think it is a lot simpler than that. Corporations are successful because they pander to the natural human desire for instant gratification.

Yes, when our cavemen ancestors were hungry, they didn't say "Hmmm... its after 5 and all the Brontosaurus Burger joints are closed"... they just went out and killed a damn brontosaurus. Through the miracles of genetics, we all have those same exact urges. I stopped shopping at Albertson's because the one in Fort Collins closes at midnight, and I'd rather give my money to King Sooper's because they're open 24/7. I much prefered the 24 hour fitness in the bay area to my gym that closes at 11pm.

Tonight, after the symphony concert finished (around 10pm), I walked from the Augsberg Kongress-Saal back to the central-city train station, which was probably about 3 km. I made it all the way to the train station without passing a single open restaurant. Not one. This train station is smack-dab in the middle of the city. In San Francisco, that would be like walking from the Symphony Hall, down Market Street, and then down 4th street to the CalTrain station without passing a single open restaurant. At the train station there were 3 open restaurants: McDonald's, Burger King, and some pizzeria. In my effort at fast-food avoidance, I went to the pizzeria, where the food looked absolutely disgusting (worse than cable-car-pizza at Union Square, if you know what I mean). I ate at BK, which seemed the lesser of 3 evils.

It wasn't a question of price. I would gladly have paid 15 euros for a good meal. But when the only choice is garbage or corporate fast food, well, that's a no-brainer. So, the next time you hear people opining about "corporations killing the mom and pop shops", just slap them across the face (twice). The simple economic fact is that if mom and pop shops could provide what their customers wanted, they would have no trouble staying in business.

Augsburg was a cool little city, but not super inviting for tourists. There are all kinds of cool old buildings around, but most of them have a giant wall all around them and weren't accessible when I was there. I had several hours of walking around without any rain, and then I headed over to the Symphony Hall. I asked a girl on a bike (stopped at a red) which direction I needed to walk, and she was so excited to meet someone who spoke english that she got off and walked me partway there (her destination was on the way). I thought it was pretty cool, because I thought it was much closer than it was, and I probably couldn't have found it in time if she hadn't done that. She studied 2 years of english, but works at a German Law firm and doesn't ever get to practice.

I was completely wrong about the concert... I thought it was going to be Mahler's 8th symphony, because I thought that's what I saw on their website. Their website is all in German so I don't feel so stupid (ignorant maybe). The first piece was a Stravinsky piece just for Wind Orchestra. Then they all left, and the second piece was a Richard Strauss piece just for Strings. After intermission was Robert Schumann's 2nd Symphony for the entire orchestra. Apparently this conductor is new, and he is very energetic... jumping all over the stage. This might be somewhat common here, because the Augsburg and Munich stages both had a rail, about 4 feet up, across the entire length of the conductor's podium. I can only guess that it keeps them from falling backwards off the stage when girate around.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Paris. My friends Phillippe and Sophie from the SCUBA trip a couple of weeks ago are going to pick me up at my hotel so we can have dinner. They're picking the restaurant, and I have no idea what kind of restaurant it will be. The french have no particular cuisine that I know of (what would you expect if you went for "french food"?), so it could be anything.

Check out the Pictures of Augsburg.