Jan 26, 2010
What He Said
No particular reason for this right now - it's just good to remind ourselves that here in The US, the process is as important as the goal.
Jan 25, 2010
From Citizens To Prisoners
Democracy in America is a Useful Fiction - by Chris Hedges
Corporations have 35,000 lobbyists in Washington and thousands more in state capitals that dole out corporate money to shape and write legislation. They use their political action committees to solicit employees and shareholders for donations to fund pliable candidates. The financial sector, for example, spent more than $5 billion on political campaigns, influence peddling and lobbying during the past decade, which resulted in sweeping deregulation, the gouging of consumers, our global financial meltdown and the subsequent looting of the U.S. Treasury.
Corporations have 35,000 lobbyists in Washington and thousands more in state capitals that dole out corporate money to shape and write legislation. They use their political action committees to solicit employees and shareholders for donations to fund pliable candidates. The financial sector, for example, spent more than $5 billion on political campaigns, influence peddling and lobbying during the past decade, which resulted in sweeping deregulation, the gouging of consumers, our global financial meltdown and the subsequent looting of the U.S. Treasury.
Jan 24, 2010
Knowledge
It's estimated that medical knowledge, for example, doubles every seven years, and scientific knowledge doubles every twenty years.
The total written knowledge in the world is said to have doubled between 1450 and 1750, and then to have doubled again between 1750 and 1900.
Between 1900 and 1950, human knowledge doubled once more, and then again from 1950 to 1975.
Now, it is believed to double every 900 days. By the year 2020, global knowledge is predicted to double every 72 days.
plain truth = schooling never ends; education is never finished.
Jan 23, 2010
Never A Bad Time To Laugh
You have to take everything seriously enough to make the effort necessary for finding the humor in it. Comedy is some serious shit.
From The Spectator, here's the first of what i hope is just the beginning of our recovery from the depths of terror.
From The Spectator, here's the first of what i hope is just the beginning of our recovery from the depths of terror.
Redneck Love Songs
"If Love Were Oil, I'd Be A Quart Low"
"I Got In At 2 With A 10, And Woke Up At 10 With A 2"
"At The Gas Station Of Love, I Got The Self-Service Pump"
"I Got In At 2 With A 10, And Woke Up At 10 With A 2"
"At The Gas Station Of Love, I Got The Self-Service Pump"
The New Paradigm
A couple of posts at The Baseline Scenario point to some real-world examples of a creepy feeling I've had for several years - that the point of the exercise is no longer to honor your word and to deliver at least what you promised, but to make the customer force you to hold up your end of the bargain. It's like every business is adopting the Used Car Lot model.
James Kwak tags it as "Design or Incompetence", and has begun to lean toward Design. ie: they do it on purpose. The banks or the mortgage companies or whoever make the contract or the offer of service as complicated and opaque as possible in order to suck us in and then fuck us over. (first post - second post)
Most of us being 'hassle-averse', we're not inclined to press a point even when we think we're not being treated quite right. Applying this assumption to a business rolling out a new offer (using rough round numbers here): I'm trying to pull in $1M in new revenue, with a Net Target of $300K. I'm spending $500K getting it out to the public, and I'm offering discounts/rebates totaling another $200K. Then I sit back and watch the numbers as the calls come into Customer Service. But what if I make a coupla relatively simple adjustments? First, the offer of discounts is big and splashy, but I add several lines of disclaimers and eligibility requirements in very complex and jargony language. Then I take some steps to ensure that I'm weeding out the new prospects who are likely to insist on getting the good deal they think I'm offering (putting them on hold when they call in works wonders - but any hurdle will do); plus, I build in a way for the Cust Svc reps to get a little bonus by cutting into the discounts, or upselling, or counterselling, or whatever. It could also be as simple as not telling the reps what the offer actually requires the customer to do to be eligible for the deal. It's not quite Bait-n-Switch, but it's really close.
The point is that we're going way off into the weeds of Caveat Emptor. Companies that can make it obvious that they're working hard to earn back the trust of their customers will lead the economy back to solid footing. Without that trust and confidence, we don't have an economy.
James Kwak tags it as "Design or Incompetence", and has begun to lean toward Design. ie: they do it on purpose. The banks or the mortgage companies or whoever make the contract or the offer of service as complicated and opaque as possible in order to suck us in and then fuck us over. (first post - second post)
Most of us being 'hassle-averse', we're not inclined to press a point even when we think we're not being treated quite right. Applying this assumption to a business rolling out a new offer (using rough round numbers here): I'm trying to pull in $1M in new revenue, with a Net Target of $300K. I'm spending $500K getting it out to the public, and I'm offering discounts/rebates totaling another $200K. Then I sit back and watch the numbers as the calls come into Customer Service. But what if I make a coupla relatively simple adjustments? First, the offer of discounts is big and splashy, but I add several lines of disclaimers and eligibility requirements in very complex and jargony language. Then I take some steps to ensure that I'm weeding out the new prospects who are likely to insist on getting the good deal they think I'm offering (putting them on hold when they call in works wonders - but any hurdle will do); plus, I build in a way for the Cust Svc reps to get a little bonus by cutting into the discounts, or upselling, or counterselling, or whatever. It could also be as simple as not telling the reps what the offer actually requires the customer to do to be eligible for the deal. It's not quite Bait-n-Switch, but it's really close.
The point is that we're going way off into the weeds of Caveat Emptor. Companies that can make it obvious that they're working hard to earn back the trust of their customers will lead the economy back to solid footing. Without that trust and confidence, we don't have an economy.
The Crystal Ball
Fixing healthcare will not fix the economy. But if you don't fix healthcare, you can't fix the economy.
Here's a nice peek into the future of the debt from a CBO report put out a year before Obama took office.
Here's a nice peek into the future of the debt from a CBO report put out a year before Obama took office.
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