Ponderances, Inanities, and other Nonsense
Archive for November, 2009
Sharepoint Simile
Nov 17th
Programming in SharePoint is like fingerpainting: sure, it takes some time to get the skills and it can be contrued as a legitmate medium in the true sense of the word, but it is messy and no one will take you seriously if you become an “expert.”
The Lost Symbol
Nov 11th
I haven’t read Dan Brown’s latest book, The Lost Symbol, as I am waiting for it to come out on paperback. Every time I go into B&N, I see a huge pile of his new book. I am wondering: has anyone read it? Your thoughts.
I found I was more interested in the story behind the story in The DaVinci Code. I liked the book, but after reading the rest of his books, I found they were too similar in structure. If the book is good, I’ll take a gander at it, but if it sucks I don’t want to waste my oh-so-valuable free time.
Update on Health Care Reform
Nov 11th
I don’t want to regurgitate Ron Paul’s explanation of why our health care industry has gone into the tank, but he does a good job of it… He has considerable insight into this issue, as he was an OB/GYN before he went into politics.
Basically, he explains everything went wrong when the HMO act of 1973 forced employers to subsidize health care for its employees. This created several problems: the biggest problem is that it paired health insurance with employment. It is on or around page 90 in his book “The Revolution.” I have found the book a really good read and I find myself agreeing with most of it.
Julian Update
Nov 11th
Julian, who just turned 4 months is 26.5 inches tall and 16.56 pounds, which puts him in the 95th and 90th percentiles, respectively.
With that note, I have started a savings account dedicated to the purchase of an additional refrigerator for when he hits puberty.
Why Lobbying (special interest) hurts our economy
Nov 11th
To start, if you don’t understand basic supply and demand, you won’t understand the big picture, so let me explain this for starters: (Pardon my oversimplification, you economically-minded folks)
Supply and demand, left to their own devices, take care of themselves. If there is enough demand for an item, there will be a supplier. They will supply enough of the item to cover their costs (divided over the quantity supplied, this is called marginal cost) and hopefully make money (again, divided over the quantity supplied, this is marginal revenue). If the marginal revenue is viewed by other potential suppliers, they will enter the market and supply. This creates surplus, so the price is dropped to reduce inventories. This continues until marginal cost = marginal revenue, at which point there is no incentive for another producer to enter the market. As any additional cost of inventory would then be a liability, no surplus exists. Supply = demand.
There are several ways that supply and demand can be impeded, all of which hurt our economy. This can be through excise taxes (which do not allow an unfavored supplier to reap the full revenue, which impedes growth compared to the favored supplier, which then makes them subject to aggressive market strategies), price-fixing (reduces incentive for other companies to enter the market, since the price will not change due to increased supply), and other means. This gives market favor to those already in the market, via oligopoly, monopolistic competition, or monopoly.
Lobbying allows large companies to outright buy the favor of legislators, which then can enact one of these controls to give advantage to the “special interest group”. Who pays? The end consumer: us!
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