To: Little Joe who wrote (74234 ) 6/23/2012 9:47:22 AM From: Hope Praytochange Respond to of 103300 In tough times, a private venture shows the way in Obama's hometown The once-again-sadly-sagging U.S. economy has been so hard on retailers and their customers the last two or three years that a sandwich shop in President Obama's hometown has just switched from regular prices to a pay-what-you-can plan. A Panera sandwich shop on Chicago's North Side removed its regular prices Thursday and now posts only suggested donations. People pay what they can, maybe a little more than suggested, maybe a little less. If some have no money, they can help clean the store for an hour to earn a meal. Somewhat strange this is happening in the same city that produced Barack Obama, who's been promising significant shovel-ready government growth ever since he flew out to Denver, for some reason, to sign the $800 billion federal economic stimulus bill back in 2009. That ended up stimulating the national debt more than the national economy. Two years ago both Obama and VP Joe Biden, who's taking today off because he can, were promising an amazing Recovery Summer with hundreds of thousands of new jobs created every month. Federal job rolls have grown significantly. But for the nation, that jobs vow turned out to be as empty as the promise to shutter the Guantanamo Bay Detention Center during 2009. Or the pretend-penurious Obama's 2008 vow to go through his federal budget line-by-line for savings. The Democratic golfer's latest budget received a truly bipartisan reception on Capitol Hill; it was rejected by every single voting member of the entire Congress of the United States. The Democrat Senate hasn't passed a budget in more than three years. The official unemployment rate remains above 8% for a record 40 months. And in an amazing coincidence, the massive Obama spending plans for his first, second and third years in office have produced the first, second and third trillion-dollar budget deficits in the nation's history. Obama says he needs a second term to finish the job. These problems are all George W. Bush's fault, obviously. And Congress' fault. And the greedy oil companies, except for George Soros' Brazilian venture. And don't forget Europe too. But Obama still tells each of his campaign fundraisers -- yes, of course, he has another one this evening, down in Tampa -- that he's optimistic about the economy and sees light ahead in the tunnel. That's perhaps because he's guaranteed a job, at least until Jan. 20. However, most Americans aren't so lucky. Panera picked that particular Chicago shop for the price switch because the Lakeview neighborhood has a mix of million-dollar townhomes and street people. "When you go into a soup kitchen," Panera founder Ron Shaich told the Chicago Tribune, "the energy is so negative and the food is institutional and the experience is institutional." On the other hand, Shaich added about this Chicago shop, "When you walk in, it's the full Panera experience." He hopes it's uplifting for everyone, both those down on their luck and those doing better and able to feel good about helping with a couple of extra dollars willingly offered. Here's how this insane invention works: Panera designates a shop for the pay-as-you-can plan. Then, it turns day-to-day operations over to the Panera Bread Foundation, a non-profit that would be happy just to break even. And it relies on the innate goodness and honesty of its customers to pay what they can. The Chicago shop is the fourth Panera to convert. You'll never guess what happened at the first three pay-as-you-can plans -- in Dearborn, Mich., Portland, Oregon and Clayton, Mo. Customers liked the idea and the food so much that instead of just breaking even, all the stores are making profits. Shaich donates those profits to service groups providing job-training to local at-risk young people. Then, Shaich hires the newly-motivated training graduates to work in his sandwich shops. Win-win-win. Plus good food. The weirdest thing is, despite the latest store re-opening in the political hometown of a president who believes there's nothing government can't do, these successful Panera ventures are all private ventures, privately done, no Solyndra subsidies or guarantees, no federal forms, no government involvement whatsoever. Just Americans helping Americans to the mutual advantage of all. It's such a crazy idea, it's working, even under this administration.