Follow the money...

So, the president of Egypt is out of a job and folks are looking into just how a "public servant" has more money in the bank than Bill Gates... Can't really say I'm surprised.

I used to have a friend who was an I.A. cop in Los Angeles when I was shooting news there. He used to regale us with stories of fun and frolic about bent cops and how they were less than smart when it came to dealing with their ill-gotten gains. He often confessed that his job was boring, as finding bad cops was akin to shooting fish in a barrel because all he had to do was simply follow the money. When cops buy houses or Ferraris for cash there is no way that they got that dinero on an underpaid cop's salary... there are only so many "rich uncles" floating around.

A lot of the news work we did on the LA government beat was pretty similar. When you saw that a city councilman whose family had a combined income of $250,000 was spending $500,000 dollars a year, it was pretty much a given that the politico in question was bent like a fish hook. Apparently reporters in Washington DC have forgotten how this works...

And what exactly does that have to do with the price of tea in China or boats?

Not sure about the price of tea in China, but for boat folk on a budget, using the "follow-the-money" trick is a great way to keep on track...

Whenever I need to purchase gear or some labor for the boat, I always do a mental follow the money exercise which is nothing more than working out if the price you are paying actually merits what the cost of something is. Let's look at something simple like a cleat to use as an example...

The price of a six-inch cleat will run you anywhere between a couple of dollars to fifty or so. When you examine the physics of how cleats actually work it becomes obvious that the three dollar cleat will work just as well as the fifty dollar cleat (in some cases the three dollar nylon cleat will actually be stronger than the fifty dollar bronze one... just saying). So, when all is said and done, you are paying more for something that is not about function but about fashion, and as far as I am concerned, this can actually be a valid reason as polished bronze does really make the varnished teak "pop"!

That said, having worked in a foundry for a bit, the real cost of the bronze cleat vs the nylon cleat is more along the lines of a few dollars rather than that $48 more the shiny bronze is going to cost you. Most of that differential is money going into people's pockets along the way from the guy who builds it to you the buyer. Which is not to say I think buying the more expensive cleat is a bad thing, it is just that the cleat in question is simply not in real terms worth the difference in price and you, as a consumer, should be aware of it.

Like I said... simply follow the money and it will tell you all you need to know.

Listening to Dan Hicks & his Hot Licks

So it goes...