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Tag: economics
Laissez-Faire Marriage
I think it’s time to restore freedom of contract to marriage. Why should 2 men, for example, be denied the same rights to contract as are allowed to a man and a woman? Far from ending civilization the extension of the bourgeoisie concept of contract ever further is the epitome of civilization. Our modern concept of marriage, for example, is simply one instantiation of the idea of contract. People will claim that this means a chaos of contracts for every form of marriage. This is wrong factually and also conceptually misguided. Factually, we already allow men and women to adjust the marriage contract as they see fit with pre-nuptials. Moreover, different states offer different marriage contracts with some offering more than one type. Partnerships of other kinds have access to all manner of contractual arrangements without insufferable problems. More importantly, the chaos of contracts argument is fundamentally misguided. The purpose of contract law is to give individual’s greater control over their lives. To make contract law a restraint on how people may govern themselves is a perversion of the social contract. To restrict people from accessing the tools of civilization on the basis of their sexual preference is baseless discrimination.
as usual, there are deeper, economic reasons behind some of the crap bible-thumpers are rallying behind.
Union Strike Analysis
strikes are going away.
Consumer champion
china is dominated by small firms that produce standardized widgets. that makes them very modular, a very different approach than japan, where the whole value chain is tightly integrated.
Alibaba
“We are lucky the business was not started in Beijing or Shanghai,” there, it might have evolved to serve the sophisticated multinationals nearby. Instead, it has aimed at the kind of small businesses that cluster around Hangzhou.
2014-05-22: Alibaba has had massive growth
Alibaba’s transactions totaled $248B (more than eBay and Amazon combined)
Alibaba delivers 5B packages a year. UPS delivers 4.3B
Alibaba’s money market fund went from 0 to 4th largest globally, in 10 months
Beware of demob
A reserve army of unemployed ex-servicemen worries China’s leaders
$8b gift card scam
Last year, more than $8b was wasted on these cards. Not in the value spent, but in fees and breakage. When you give a card, if it doesn’t get used, someone ends up keeping your money, and it’s not the recipient. People spent more than $8b for nothing… buying a product that isn’t as good as cash. Gift cards are for chumps
blowing money on holy shoppingmas is for chumps
Technology Wants To Be Free
the 0 price option in business – making your product free is becoming more and more important. nice essay
Bush Consequences
When we look back someday at the catastrophe that was the Bush administration, we will think of many things. The damage to the economy does not make headlines every day, but the repercussions will be felt beyond the lifetime of anyone reading this page.
PetroChina hits $1t
first $1t company by market cap