Friday, May 14, 2004
Cynics and Exploiters
University presidents are most sanctimonious and hypocritical when it comes to college athletics. It is well known that the big schools/programs raise huge sums while participating in a legally sanctioned cartel (the NCAA) that exploits some very poor people.In fact, this episode is one that legitimately earns the label "exploitation", a term that is widely used but seldom so applicable.
The new NCAA President, Myles Brand, is a former university president and he explains all of this much better than I can. His words are cited in a piece in today's WSJ by Stefan Fatsis, who notes that Dr. Brand refers to critics as "self-anointed radical reformers and incorrigble cynics." Yup. It's very hard not to be cynical when colleges take in billions but hide behind sweetheart-deal exemptions from anti-trust rules that assure that the workers get almost nothing, rarely even a college education.
The real exploitation occurs when lawmakers regulate this way.
Light blogging while I am traveling. But, you never know.
Thursday, May 13, 2004
More Democratization of Luxury
Dramatic productivity improvements have been translating into significant human welfare improvements for the last several hundred years. As the trend accelerates (not just in the U.S.), some have noted the Democratization of Luxury. Cox and Alm document much of it and Virginia Postrel finds it in ever more examples of improved product design.My colleague Berokh Khoshnevis is close to developing usable robots that can build homes. He notes that construction is the last major industry to be untouched by modern production methods. His work will soon change that.
Not only will construction costs fall dramatically (Berokh envisions building a home in a day) but the design options available to most of us will also expand significantly. Both are auspicious.
This morning's LA Times includes a wonderful essay by Cara Mullio and Jennifer Volland about the Killingsworth home in Long Beach, California. Homes like this (and many others not even imagined yet) will soon be available to most of us.
Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Capital Markets, the Web, Human Well-Offness and ButtKickers
This morning's LA Times includes "Answer to the fuel crisis (maybe) can be all yours ... The rights to a motor conversion technology are for sale on Ebay. No minimum bid -- but it does need some work ... Would you like to own the rights to technology that will free this planet from having to rely on oil -- foreign or domestic? It's for sale! On EBay!"Why not? Buy and sell intellectual property rights on the Web and cut out some more middlemen. Actually, middlemen and other specialists will always be on hand where they can add value. It's just that their fees will now be facing new pressures.
Anything that reduces barriers between investors and inventors is to be welcomed.
Speaking of an improved quality of life, the WSJ's Walter Mossberg writes about the ButtKicker: "A Killer Amp --for Your Desk Chair ... Device Attaches to a Seat To Let Users Literally Feel The Vibes of Music, Games ... Is this a Great country or what? Thanks to technology, you soon will be able to not only hear your favorite music and the sound effects of videogames, but to actually feel these sounds, and not just in your heart and soul."
In a busy shared office space, these would go well with the headphones.
Tuesday, May 11, 2004
Consumer Sovereignty
Reading "Neither TiVo nor the Xbox nor your Wi-Fi-ed laptop is remaking American culture the way this thing is ... Bet on it ... The Tug of Newfangled Slot Machines" by Gary Rivlin made me accept the premise. Slot machine revenues are way beyond porn's and bigger than McDonald's, Wendy's, Burger King and Starbuck's combined.These are the new high-tech kind, enhanced with specially made video entertainment clips (Dick Clark's is big), programmable to dribble out winnings at an optimal rate to keep players playing even as they slowly lose -- and with a stylized old-slots look, complete with wheels, beeps and chimes that maintains the "feel" that players like. Rivlin's piece suggests that these devices have the same hold on the beyond-60s set that video games have on younger people.
"The makers of slot machines may rely on the lure of life-changing jackpots to attract customers but the machines' ability to hook so deeply into a player's cerebral cortex derives from the more powerful human feedback mechanisms, a phenomenon behavioral scientists call infrequent random enforcement, or 'intermittent reward' ... 'The slot machine is brilliantly designed from a behavioral psychology perspective,' says Nancy Perry, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine ..."
Rivlin's coverage mentions no cognitive scientists among the creators. There is a mathematician that helps to fine tune the odds but the creative side is all industry types. They somehow get it right without PhDs. It's their business and that's what profit-inspired competition routinely does.
I simply must compare all this to the white elephants alluded to in yesterday's blog which are failures because their creators have no clue about what people want. How can they? No competition, no profit and only specialized knowledge of what people should want.
Monday, May 10, 2004
Social Engineering is Hard Work
The ten-year anniversary of the opening of the Chunnel, reports Christian Wolmar, goes unheralded because it has been an underperforming disappointment.Let's see. People cannot drive through it (they can "transfer" cars onto and off shuttles and they can ride the Eurostar train) and airline deregulation in Europe has dropped cross-Channel airfares. My London-Berlin flight last year cost $25 (and $35 to have the ticket express mailed to LA). And this is Europe where gasoline prices are much higher than anything Americans have seen.
What do planners in Los Angeles want to build? High-speed rail to remote airports and high-speed rail to compete with north-south intrastate air and auto travel.
Just like the Chunnel, the price tags quoted are in the billions, almost all local planners and politicians are on-board. The proposals are seen as good ways to "get people out of their cars."
Sunday, May 09, 2004
Tough Mom Needed
The NY Times comments on Mercedes' slip in quality rankings, along with the same occurring for other German classic brands. The story also remarks that new EU rules may nix the Made in Germany label, in favor of the new Made in the EU. Economic integration may be a good idea but the EU example presents problems -- including an ugly currency replacing some much more intriguing designs.The Economist also chimes in with respect to Germany's economic problems and the slow pace of labor market reforms. Writing about an important reform commission: " ... The Hartz Commission, established to reform the labour market and create new jobs, has sociologists on board but not a single economist."
Economists aside, is there a Margaret Thatcher in Germany's future? It took a very tough lady to change Great Britain's course. Germany's troubles require no less. Mother's Day is a good time to start the search
Postscript to yesterday's blog. Anna Schwartz adds that an important part of the story is Friedman's steady work as a popularizer of important ideas.
