by pieterh

This is well known in Africa, where imports are so slow, and costly, that perishable imported goods are reserved for expatriates. The notion of sell-by dates, after which produce would be thrown out or worse, destroyed makes no sense in a continent that is in effect, and despite the valiant efforts of many Africans to improve the place, a vast labor camp.

by pieterh

by pieterh

by pieterh

Religion is an intellectual's escape: the fool has no need of it, and foot soldiers of churches everywhere follow for reasons other than belief. Mr Spock is more likely to believe in a god than Crewman Nr.5, who follows Captain Kirk because he thinks it's a good way to get cute alien chicks.

Society has evolved alternatives to religion, primarily alcohol and in some cases, sex. Organized religions therefore insist on banning (through the sancity of marriage) sex, and (by force if needed), alcohol.

by pieterh

Wikipedia describes privacy as "the ability of an individual or group to seclude themselves or information about themselves and thereby reveal themselves selectively". This is a pretty good definition except that it fails to ask the ever-important question: why? Why do we value privacy? If there is no good answer to this, there is no good answer to the question, "does it matter when we lose our privacy?" Luckily, economics provides a solid answer. Privacy allows the owner of a data, information, or knowledge good to receive the appropriate market value for its sharing and reuse, or to benefit by excluding others from accessing that information good.

Abuses of privacy are violations of the exclusion, and use of an individual or a group's data, information, or knowledge goods without their permission and without due compensation. The abusers' motto "if you have done nothing wrong, you have nothing to hide" is similar to the tyrant's motto "all property is theft", a rationale for organized expropriation of privacy by a more powerful group. Pieter's Privacy Postulate states that in any given society respect for privacy correlates to respect for freedom.

The economics-based analysis of privacy is based on the underlying analysis that society can be accurately understood as an data-information-knowledge processing machine constructed as a free market.

It is easy to test this hypothesis: would you accept $1m in exchange for your credit card records? How about $10m, or $100,000. As is clear, privacy has a monetary value. Violations of privacy are consider "unethical" because society respects, by definition, the economic value of data, information, and knowledge.

Finally, one can note that the definition of "data, information and knowledge goods" includes images, sounds, and other data about one's self. When an individual or group publishes data outside an agreed exclusion zone - e.g. by walking in the street - such data is considered as being put into the public domain. Thus, the question "what hat did the Queen wear at yesterday's parade" is not an invasion of privacy, while "what undergarments does she wear" is.

by pieterh

This house believes that the best way to protect the core wealth of the middle classes is to severely restrict the housing market so that the construction of new houses is almost impossible.

Yes, this means house prices will be high, that young couples won't be able to afford a new home, that the construction industry won't boom, that the mortgage industry will be slow and boring. It also means that cities won't see their hearts left to rot, that we won't see the green zones eaten up by new houses, that people will live concentrated in cities and use public transport rather than drive to and from work every day.

It also means that house prices will be based on something real: scarcity. When a family invests in a house, paying their mortgage each month, and the state allows the construction of new houses, this deflates the value of existing houses. In effect, it is deliberate inflation, a form of wealth distribution that takes from the middle classes to give to the poor. It is notable that the construction of new houses in upper class residential areas is universally restricted.

Countries that dramatically liberalise construction regulation tend to see a construction boom followed by a collapse in housing prices, followed by economic recession. A direct consequence of a liberal housing market is the widening of the gap between rich and poor, as tranches of the middle class are impoverished. Post-unification Germany would be a good example. So would California in 2007, followed by all countries that saw a housing boom: Australia, UK, Spain, etc.

by pieterh

by pieterh

The modern air travel experience has been described as "a bunch of tired, frustrated, and hungry people fighting it out over a handful of power sockets". It is notable how the modern air travel experience resembles a low-grade torture facility. The victims, also called "pax", are stripped of their personal dignity through a series of searches "for their own security". They are removed from contact with the outside world, often for hours. All communications, entertainment, leisure, and comfort are removed from common spaces, so that "VIP Lounges" can sell these back to "business class travelers" at a premium. Some airports have successfully combined the ersatz comforts of a shopping mall with the mechanical business of processing pax, but most rely on shock and awe to keep the pax under control and compliantly close to the gate.

It would be relatively simple to make airports even pleasant places to travel in: free wi-fi and free Internet kiosks; comfortable seats to relax or doze in; SMS alarms for boarding; better design in which walking distances are minimized; pleasant seating areas decorated with plants and separators; more and cheaper food and drink; television areas; areas for children to play; many more power sockets; proper shops with decent choices; sports facilities with swimming pool, roller rink, shooting stand, and ping-pong tables.

Airports are a classic example of planning based on irrational expectations of growth. Just as countries around the world replace older, less shiny airports with new glass and metal behemoths, oil starts to run out and the global air travel industry collapses.

by pieterh

by pieterh

by pieterh

Anyone who thinks that modern society is based on equality of males and females should examine their own views on male and female sexuality. The teacher and student are caught in a car, one is twenty-five, one is fifteen. Now imagine the four possible combinations of gender, and examine your own reactions to those. Ethics is about the fairness of power.

by pieterh

It is easy, but incorrect, to confuse patents with other remnants of medieval thinking such as bloodletting, witch burning, and the use of garlic to ward off infectious diseases. Patents in fact have two main functions. First, they protect inefficient and uncompetitive businesses from the ravages of the free market; second they provide an elegant model for tax avoidance, since royalties on patents are exempt of tax, or very lowly taxed, in most countries.

by pieterh

by pieterh

Many women are attracted by pretty things, money and power. A man with the brutality to seize these from others can exert a strong attraction on women. However, women also want legitimacy, for themselves and their children. They may date a gangster, but they want to marry an honest man. Men who cannot either conform to society, or build a society that conforms to them, will find their only company to be hustlers and hookers.

by pieterh

by pieterh

by pieterh

by pieterh

by pieterh

by pieterh