缅北禁地

Mar 1, 2024 3 min read

Jeers: Industries like airlines and hotels have what is known as “dynamic pricing,” where prices are adjusted based on demand. For instance, prices for hotel rooms in cities like Cleveland and Erie in the first weekend of April are going to be much more expensive than they typically are because they are in the zone that will be experiencing a total solar eclipse. For a while this week, it looked like the fast-food industry was going to deploy the same tactic when it was reported that Kirk Tanner, the CEO of Wendy’s, said in an earnings call that the company would try “dynamic pricing” next year when it introduced digital menu boards. It sure looked like price gouging to many people, and after a couple of days of an intense online backlash, the company denied that it would be raising prices at times of peak demand. A spokesman said the menu boards would be used instead to offer discounts during parts of the day when demand was lower. Whether this was always the case or the company was trying to fix a serious public relations problem, dynamic pricing in the restaurant industry seems like an exceptionally bad idea, particularly when eateries like Wendy’s are surrounded by so many competitors, and alienated customers have many more options from which to choose.

Jeers: Sometimes it seems like rural communities are caught in a vicious cycle – jobs and amenities are not available that would keep young people there, and as the population declines, the remaining jobs and amenities shrivel, which makes a revival even harder to pull off. A recent story in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette offered a case in point. It reported how a six-county region in the northern part of Pennsylvania will no longer have a hospital that offers maternity care because Elk Hospital in St. Marys plans on shuttering its obstetrics unit in two months. For the hospital, it’s a simple matter of dollars and cents – there simply aren’t enough births happening to make it feasible economically. The lack of care for mothers and babies could have an adverse impact on infant mortality and, as you would expect, cause younger people to think twice about living there. One 31-year-old told the Post-Gazette, “Now, it’s a million times less attractive for a young family to live here.” Steve Fontaine, the CEO of Penn Highlands Health System, recently told lawmakers that “rural hospitals are on the brink of disaster without increased support from our state and federal governments.” Will the lawmakers Fontaine spoke to listen?

Cheers: Washington & Jefferson College announced the appointment of its new president this week. Dr. Elizabeth MacLeod Walls will take the helm at the liberal arts college in Washington on July 1. She comes to the job with some sterling credentials – MacLeod Walls has been the president of William Jewell College in Missouri since 2016, and has previously had leadership roles at Nebraska Wesleyan University and Bryan College of Health Sciences in Lincoln, Neb. The college said the presidential search committee was impressed by MacLeod Wells’ “bold and strategic vision” and thought “her experience and determination (were) the right combination of skills to lead W&J.” Being the president of a college or university is no easy task right now, thanks to the issues surrounding declining enrollment, free speech and politics, so we hope MacLeod Walls is successful at W&J’s helm.