Author: Curt Doolittle

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/Nyepositional.htmlMy postion is that Positional Goods (Status Signals, Signaling, Status Cues), are not redistributable. And that’s because status signals are NECESSARY, not preferential.

http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/Nyepositional.htmlJohn Nye writes more on Status Signals: “because the West is much richer, positional or status goods are consequently more important. The struggle over status goods can be masked when you have rapid growth and a lot of mobility. But ultimately, middle and upper middle class people DO care more about health care, location of housing, and elite schooling than poorer people. “

In marketing, advertising and politics, social signaling matters. Now, my argument is that it’s impossible to have a complex society without social signals. So my argument is that social signals are NECESSARY. Just like money and numbers are necessary. Because we would would literally not be able to THINK if we didn’t have status signals. Just like we wouldn’t be able to THINK if we didn’t have prices.

I love Apple. Really. iPhone problem? Wait in line for 20min. Get a brand new one for a hundred bucks. Go home. Hit “restore”. Wait a few minutes. Done. Priceless.

No memory of yesterday. None. Reaction to sulfites is increasing as exposure decreases.

“The Department of Transportation found that, in 2009, commutes by private car took, on average, 23 minutes. Public transportation, by contrast, took an average of 53 minutes. “

Public transportation is slow. It’s loud. It’s ugly, and it’s dirty. It’s only suitable for people with very regular schedules. It dampens consumption. It’s absurdly expensive per person – particularly rail. It feeds the public sector bureaucracy. It allows large corporations to get subsidized labor rather than pay increased wages. And frankly, it’s unsanitary. So, it’s all well and good that downtown cores make use of public transportation. But otherwise, we’d be better off giving people zero interest used car loans. I realize some people love it. And as a resident of downtown Boston I appreciated it – when I wasn’t freezing to death in the wind chill. But I don’t have the regular schedule, the extra hour a day to waste, plus the extra time on either side of the work day, nor the time to make separate trips for groceries and what-not. Even in Germany almost eighty percent of the population commutes by car. I’m glad that some people think it’s sensible. But the math doesn’t make sense to me at all.

http://www.themoneyillusion.com/?p=10259The types of inequality

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/ezra-klein/post/does-americas-99-percent-represent-the-top-1-percent-on-earth/2011/10/12/gIQA5JVQfL_blog.htmlPerspective

http://www.eif.org/news_centre/publications/eif_wp_2011_009_EU_Venture.pdfAn interesting paper on the weakness of the VC community, and general entrepreneurship in Europe vs the USA. Personally, my experience is that too much money is captured in government hands where it does not seek speculative (high) returns. (And therefore does not create jobs.) The authors also note that VC’s in europe are predominantly from finance, not entrepreneurs, engineers or scientists and therefore lack the knowledge to invest in risk ventures. Personally, I think the cultural issues ( Americans are very tolerant of risk and willing to work very, very hard in startups) are not insignificant. Nor is the anti-capitalist sentiment very helpful.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/13/opinion/how-to-stop-the-drop-in-home-values.htmlSomeone else catches on.

If we had written down mortgages in 2007 when I suggested it, we’d have had almost NO recession and saved ourselves something on the order of ten trillion in value.

This was one of the very few boom-bust cycles that was eminently fixable.

Power: “The opportunity to alter the probability of outcomes”.

Sovereignty: “Power”

Will to Power: “The Human Desire For Sovereignty”

Given the diversity of individual ability, the diversity of individual knowledge, and the diversity of the social classes, all desire for sovereignty is constant, but the expression of it varies almost infinitely. Those at the bottom desiring sovereignty from constraints of scarcity and status deprivation, and those at the top desiring sovereignty of expression over that of their competitors for the ultimate in status attainment. Amidst this vast chaos of wills, the public intellectual attempts to define status – a re-distributor and appropriator of not just money, but status and power.

Make no mistake. It’s all about money, status and power.