Value Pricing

Hanoch Ne’eman 5 Shevat, 5782 Yerushalayim, Israel

To my dear lawyer, may his light shine:

Just following up on our earlier correspondence about my surprise over the (to my mind) high price for helping me with the title transfer. I asked you for a breakdown of the costs, to which you demurred except to say it includes court costs and the outside opinion about New Jersey law, and that more experienced lawyers take more. That was indeed helpful but what I was driving at more was what is your pricing structure and how do you arrive at it? You probably know already what I will write here, but I for myself anyway like to articulate it. 

Any reputable business or service provider, should be able to define both for himself and his customers, how he arrives at his price. This price is basically made up of two factors: overhead and profit. Let’s take a simple example. Let’s say someone has a business where it’s him and one employee. His overhead consists of what he pays his employee, plus rent if he has it, and other expenses. Let’s say that comes to thirty thousand shekels a month. He and his worker, together, work on average three hundred and twenty hours per month. So his overhead per hour of work is 30,000 / 320 = 93.75 shekels. So for every man hour the company works for a customer, they have to charge him 94 shekels. Let’s say this company values their work at 400 shekels per hour (what they want to profit). Then their hourly rate should be 494 shekels per hour. If the work takes ten hours, then the customer’s bill should be 4940 shekels plus tax. With this information, the customer can have some idea of the value he is getting. 

If you are interested, I can give you two examples of work I had done for me, one where I felt I got good value, and one where I felt somewhat taken. About a year and a half ago, I had two things done in my apartment; I had a small A/C unit put in for the first time, and I had my triss cords replaced. I had actually replaced one or two of my triss-cords myself in the past. Wanting to save time, I called someone to do it. He and his worker came. I had one actually broken, but he convinced me it was good to proactiviely replace the cords in all seven windows in the apartment, which I agreed because they were like twenty years old, and could also go. The price for one, he told me before coming, was a hundred shekels. Seven would be seven hundred. Okay I say. So they start to do them, and in about twenty minutes, including borrowing a screwdriver from me, they replace all seven cords. 

Afterwards, I felt I did not get good value in this transaction, because I felt his overhead was low and his profit was very high for the time spent. I felt I should have asked for a deal of like 450 shekels. 

The AC folks, on the other hand, I felt did give me good value. The AC unit itself, was about 1250 shekels, and they brought it from the dealer. The installation cost about 850 shekels, which took them about two and a half hours to do, including drilling a hole through about 30 cm of my exterior wall, mounting the condenser outside, and the wall unit inside, involving all sorts of tools, copper tubes, and electrical work. Plus they had come before that to give me an estimate and help me plan where to put it. I was so impressed with the quality of their work, and the value I was getting, (especially compared, I felt, to the triss guy) that I surprised them by giving them a six hundred shekel tip. 

In short, I appreciate quality work, but I like to know what I am paying for, so I can judge the value I am getting. It’s a different feeling when you know what you are paying for, and you don’t feel the merchant is simply charging you something because the guy down the street is charging that, or because he thinks he can get away with it because the customer is ignorant. 

cartoon credit: webstockreview.com

Cat in tree

29 AV 5780 Yerushalayim Hanoch Ne’eman 

My friend Yisrael Shanet told me this story which happened in his neighborhood about two weeks ago. 

His neighbor notices a cat in a tree, which he feels the cat is stuck in. The neighbor calls the Fire Dept. The Fire Department, probably because they were bored and felt like going someplace, come out with a fire truck. They try to convince the guy that the cat is okay and doesn’t need help, but he insists it does. They did not come with a truck with a ladder. They devise a plan that they will try to tease it off the tree with the water hose. The neighbor holds a bag under the cat, prepared to catch it when it falls. However the firemen manage to blast the cat clear out of the tree, where it splats down to the ground and immediately runs out into the nearby street, and under a car. Now the cat is somewhere under the car, and not coming out, and traffic is blocked. The firemen, ever creative, manage to grab the cat by its hind leg with some sort of clamp they have, and drag it out from under the car. Having completed this great act of civic service, the worthy municipal employees depart.

Moral: If someone asks you to do something stupid, JUST SAY NO from the beginning, and don’t let their crying deter you. You might think this is a minor character trait, but I am telling you, it’s one of the most important things in life.  

That NY Times Cartoon

30 Sivan 5779 New Jersey  by Hanoch Ne’eman

A fellow in shul was certain the NY Times Trump-Netanyahu cartoon was anti-Semitic. I begged to differ. “Anti-Semitism” is an euphemism for Jew Hatred. Anti-Semitism means “hateful of Jews”. It does not mean “offensive to Jews”. Important to remember that.

And if people don’t like what a newspaper publishes, the best thing to do, is not to throw out the paper in disgust, but not to buy it, as Thoreau said some time ago.

I personally did not find it particularly offensive. The Rabbi at shul, not the person mentioned above, thought it was because it depicted Netanyahu as a dog. Yes, but it was a seeing eye dog, not just a dog.

I am not trying to make excuses, but people have the right to express stupid and wrong opinions, also as cartoons if they want. It does not mean they hate you per se.

In Switzerland not long ago, there was an incident where a hotel resort put up a sign reminding people to shower before entering the pool. A reasonable request. Some Jews there said it was directed to them and anti-Semitic. I was not there but I was embarrassed by the people who leaped in (no pun intended) to condemn the hotel. They could hate Jews, but it is just as likely, especially since they were their customers, that some guests simply were not showering before bathing.

Don’t be too quick to cry anti-semitism. If unjustified, that can itself cause ill will.

By the way, I look at it as a great achievement and privilege that Israel as a country can be subject to criticism for its policies. That shows people notice us, and gives us a chance to make our case. In other words, Baruch Hashem we have reached a day where the world can make political cartoons about us!

Bring them on.

 

Loving Person

8 Iyar 5779  New Jersey, Chanoch Ne’eman

For those of us trying to get married, it is of course important to try to be a loving person. 

But as Erich Fromm pointed out, being loving is a character trait, which means you should exhibit it with everyone. After all, if it’s your personality, it should show all the time.

If you are only “loving” to people you are interested in befriending, then you are really not a loving person, just someone who knows how to act loving when it suits them.

So don’t wait for a date to practice being loving.

Talking

28 Nisan 5779 New Jersey Chanoch Ne’eman

Talking is very important to organize your thoughts. If you have people you can talk to about your life regularly, consider yourself lucky. Not everyone does. I find it rather difficult to find folks to talk to. That is one reason I hope to remarry soon. If you can talk to your spouse about your life, that’s a real benefit.

What do you do in absence of interlocutors?

Some suggestions:

-Talk to yourself – dialogue between yourself and your “concerned, intelligent friend”, out loud.

-Do the same thing – but on paper.

-Pray to Heaven.

-Combination of the above.

Halloween

22 Heshvan, 5779 Chanoch Ne’eman, Jerusalem (c)

Halloween is about Death, I am sorry to say. About Man’s fear of it. Some pagan baggage brought over from England in colonial days.

Its messages are negative at best, morbid at worst. Trick or Treat? –  Trick means deny your fears. Treat means indulge so to forget them.

If a child was afraid of the dark, would you advise them to dress up like a ghost? Or give them candy to take to bed?

I think one would do better to say, “Yes, the Dark can be pretty scary, but I am not far away, and really you will be fine, don’t worry.”

In other words, we need to give ourselves and each other Love, not tricks or treats. I suggest skipping Halloween and waiting for Thanksgiving, a more American holiday.

(written after recent visits in New Jersey and London)

Reach, throw…

14th of Omer, H. Ne’eman, Scottsdale

Tonight I was sitting by the pool reviewing a lot of my life mistakes, I guess you could say it was the reflecting pool, at least for that time. At some time in the middle I see a big moth splashing about in the water. He keeps getting swished around, can’t get out of the water, and does not come close enough to the side for me to reach him.

In the scouts, in our lifesaving classes, we learned the order of rescue: Reach, Throw, Row, Go. Finally I remembered that there were some Styrofoam swim tubes in one of the changing rooms. I procured one of those and made the moth reach-rescue.

May Hashem be so kind as to help us out of our fixes! Ana Hashem Hoshia Na!

 

 

message to you

Motz. Shabbat, Ohr l’21 Adar, 5777 Hanoch Ne’eman, Scottsdale, AZ

On Wed., the 11th of Adar, I took a hike up and over Camelback Mt., starting on Invergordon Road. When I got back to my car, there was another car parked behind me. On its hood were metal letters which said “Trust in G-d”. On the back of the car were more hood ornament letters saying “keep pushing forward”.

This was for me a personal message, I felt, as during my hike I was saying to myself, as a mantra, “push your self to accomplish”, not regarding the hike but as a general admonishment. Coming at the end of the hike, it was like a confirmation.

Vegetarian at 105

10 Tevet, 5777 Hanoch Ne’eman, Jerusalem

Recently a Frenchman by the name of Robert Marchand set a record: at age 105 he bicycled over 22.5 kilometers in an hour. Now you are probably thinking like me, how many 105 year olds can two wheel bicycle at all, let alone for an hour? So good for him for being an example for fitness. But what I was also impressed with was that his trainer said, (with disapproval) that Robert had recently stopped eating meat, and that she thinks he could have done better if he was eating meat. The reason he stopped was because he felt animals were often mistreated in the meat industry. Bravo. That is part of why I started eating vegetarian also years ago. And in general, is it nice for us to eat animals?

The question is why this man just started doing this at 105? I in any case applaud it, but I can also suggest a possible reason. Many years ago a friend once suggested to me that perhaps I was a vegetarian because I was afraid of death. Well I think there may be something to that. We all fear death somewhat. Perhaps that aversion translates into not wanting to be the cause of death of other creatures too. So, perhaps, when you are 105, you are more sensitive to death too?

In any case, Hashem should help us all to stay both fit and sensitive to our fellow creatures.

A prayer for teeth

27 Kislev 5777 Hanoch Ne’eman, Jerusalem

In the kiddush levana prayers, over the new moon, there is a request in some siddurim for no toothaches or cavities!? I guess because the moon is white and sort of looks like a big tooth, and you know how the kabbalah is sensitive to subtle associations.

But truthfully, and toothfully, teeth are worth praying over. How I wish I still had a full set of non-filled or chipped teeth. It’s all about dental hygiene.  And yes, you can brush your teeth on shabbat, and floss too, if you cut the floss before shabbat. I recommend this; letting one’s teeth go bad is not my idea of religion.