Grow you own from summer branch cuttings. Use root hormone and put them in super rich soil they will be ready to plant next spring.

I believe a lot of distribution companies exist, as a way to enforce antitrust laws and to prevent monopolies and flooding the market with just one brand. You should look at how the UK and Ireland distribution beer. There laws are all about protecting local breweries from just that flooding the market.

I believe that is true.

My thought, is it is always about money and is always complicated and at the end of the day it is always the consumer that loses. Whether a distribution company is used or not. I understand why distribution companies exist and it is a system that is fair and unfair from a capitalist sense. Regional beer, or any local product production company needs regulations in place that allow them to survive without inference. Such as getting to the point where the company doesn't need to constantly expand to be successful. Some of the best companies to work for, revolve around making a living wage for everyone involved in the company and that is enough, from owner, to managers to workers, is a noble goal. Not all beer companies needs to have a national or statewide presence to be successful. Especially if prices are carefully managed to reflect inflation and high quality products, not just greed or the bottom line. Companies that make the consumer happy and their workers are the best model of business.

This is the same behavior that happens when a hurricane is going to strike somewhere and a evacuation is issued for the population. All the hotels in surrounding areas raise the price of hotel rooms for the people who evacuate. It's call Price Gouging and in a number of places it is illegal. It needs to be illegal everywhere.

If you lived in area like this one spot in Illinois that produces more horseradish then every other place in the world, You would expect you could buy horseradish cheaper there than anywhere else. But somehow the farmer next door to you, starts selling it for the same price that he sell it on the other side of the planet, which is more expensive because of the transportation costs, packaging, etc.

The is what late-stage capitalism is all about. It is about using the same economic schemes large companies use to price oil. Even though oil can be produced in the US far cheaper than other places, the Saudis control and tell the US what the price of oil should be. Now they treat all commodities like that, it is why food has gone out of sight. We decided a number of years ago to use food (corn) as fuel. Allowing Wall Street to act like OPEC and set the price of corn. Starving people in poor countries (such as Mexico) who rely of corn not for ethanol, but food.
As the price of corn rose so did other foods rise, as corn became more valuable, farmers and companies planted more corn as they made more money using their land for corn than other crops, such as rice or wheat, oats or barley. Forcing those who didn't plant corn to raise there prices.

The sad part is corn isn't even the best plant to make ethanol out of , they just have the biggest lobby in Washington. Certain forms of bamboo with a higher sugar content and biomass, (more ethanol per acre), is a much better plant to use to make ethanol.

This is the exact same economic nonsense that is increasing the cost of energy in the US.

As my Mom said back in the seventies, (a visionary genius), solar power will become common as soon as companies figure out how to charge us for using our sun for energy as if they own it. Even now certain states are taxing people who go off grid with solar, justifying the tax by saying it increases the prices of electricity for everyone else who stays on the grid. Its why large electric companies are offering to put solar panels on your house, they recieve free energy they sell to others and still charge you.

Capitalism just truly and forever sucks. We need laws that protect us from companies that don't have a conscience. Capitalism with a Conscience is the only economic plan that is fair.

Wasn't that the point in the first place. A rise in interest only hurts the little guy.

There is nothing wrong with trying to maintain the general appearance of a neighborhood. It there were no rules in place the entire city would shortly be a 4 over 1, apartment building. The rich deserves good schools not because they are rich but because they are like everyone else only with money. All lower, middle and high schools are part of a non-profit system of education in this country that needs to be support at any cost. Rebuilding the school it to look historic isn't a bad thing, it pays homage to an architectural style that was once considered modern after all. At a time when buildings were built that way based on cheap plentiful materials. Modern architecture hasn't been proven to be any better to the overall health of a child's educational enrichment or enjoyment. It is just a way to crowd more children into a smaller space to achieve bigger class sizes. There is an augment to be made that some buildings are more beautiful than others that is why 'Architecture' begins and ends with a foundation of good design. Designing a space that promotes learning about the humanities as well as science is the best use of space. Most modern architectural schools look like science labs, not libraries, the same way prisons are built, with ugly cinder block walls, not enough windows or bathrooms. Schools should be places where children enjoy being there.

My helpful hint is if you know anyone who keeps chickens, give them the pumpkins.

Chickens love pumpkins that are cut open, like them best with the seeds and guts still in place. For years I have also feed cut in half cabbage to my chickens once a week they love them. Sadly they have gotten to expensive to use, the same is true for pumpkins. Cabbages depending on where you buy them are now, .90 cents to $1.47 a pound make a simple 5lb cabbage cost almost $7 bucks. Pumpkins are the same gotten way to expensive.

It is not regulated anywhere near where it was before Nixon, Regan. and Bill Clinton. Especially tax regulations on the rich, corporations and especially the banks.

This is the end result of unregulated Capitalism. Without regulation nothing will change. The prices of housing it going to continue to rise, which means wages will rise as well, in direct opposition the Federal Reserve Banks, desire to lower wages in the misguided believe that inflation is caused by a shortage of low paying workers. We are at the highest employment rate in decades 3.5%. First raise the minimum wage to fifteen an hour. Then regulate utilities. Biden should have made it clear it railroads can't fix the problems and give sick days. The government will nationalize the railroads companies... F*ck Casino's. That isn't a economic plan its a lobbying issue.

True. I am laughing. Beer being sold at basketball games didn't even occur to me. Of course that makes it worst, in the same way everyone in America is ripped off by concessions in movie theaters when they sell products at outrageous prices as they have a captive audience. College sports as a money making venture sort of bothers me. Using student labor (the players) who aren't being paid is a type of abuse, it abuses the students as well by charging higher prices. Now if VCU said they branded a beer so they could sell it cheaper that would be different, but they would never do that.

But okay, I understand your point.

This really isn't about whether students drink or not, its all about optics. Fraternities at VCU are actually a very small portion of the student body on the whole. It's actually about using the VCU brand, as another way of tunneling money to VCU. The commodification of all education and knowledge at VCU isn't enough for them, they now want a piece of the after hours social and fun pie at VCU. VCU is afterall, not about providing a needed educational experience for students, its about extracting cash from them as a profit making enterprise. Greed in the educational systems throughout America is little more than wholesale extortion on a massive scale. This is just about VCU trying to play the profit game at a state run institution, in conjuction with Hardywood Brewry, if no one had called them out they would still be selling "Ram Bam", a disgusting name that insinuates and promotes alcohol consumption in the same way they have partnered with fast food companies to get students to consume junk food. Its also about the suggestion that 'Ram Bam' is some kind of energy drink, like Red Bull and all those other terrible for you to consume caffine drinks. Again profit making companies making profit is all that matters to them. VCU's true institutional brand, needs to be a high quality education in a safe environment that promotes and attracts students from Virginia that desperately needs a low cost education so they can become contributeing members to society. Of course they rather fill the classroom with out of state students, who pay a third more, for the same education. In a Capitialist economy it doesn't make sense for VCU to try and attract the children from our own state to go to VCU as they pay less. Why would they do that, they make more profit pandering to out of state students. There are no longer any four year colleges in Viginia that cater to the working class families of Virginia. No benifits or educational perks for our children, who are competing against children from various states that had a better lower school education, because those states have higher quality school systems. There should be no difference in the quality of education, between a public school education and a private one in Virginia. The whole, we were going to use the profit from selling beer for student scholarships, is just a load of crap. They need to use the money to to off-set the cost of lowering tutition for Virginia's state students.

Just what Americans need, another reason not to exercise, as walking is good for all of us.

give out candy to little kids

I agree. My son who is 28, has been working ten years as a cook in Richmond. I watched the show called the Bear and recomended it to him, as it dealt with the honest environment in most restaurants. He watched the show and told me he almost turned it off as it gave him PTSD. Restaurant work, suffers from the same Capitalist bullshit as everyother business. Treat and pay your workers badly, while trying to convince your employes you are doing them a favor by abusing you this way, that its part of the training. The problem isn't restuarants, its about trying to feed people with the Capitalist approach of raking in the most money for the least amount of money spent. As my son would say, there are way too many restuarants. If you can't make enough money to pay your workers a living wage, then get out of the business. Covid and the advent of Door Dash only compounded the problem for kitchen staff. They are now suppose to cook for an entire restuarant, while feeding an entire city at the same time with no additional help. The only thing big cities have is a great many more terrible customers.