tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.comments2010-11-15T22:40:18.895-08:00Dynamic EquilibriaAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11029125710273972322noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-24018717746271140872010-11-15T22:40:18.895-08:002010-11-15T22:40:18.895-08:00In a truly free market where every trade is both v...In a truly free market where every trade is both voluntary and based on accurate information, no one can have a negative value. In any real society there will be thieves, burglars, muggers, con men, rapists, and murderers. I believe that to the extent they fit these categories, these people have negative value. <br /><br />Where do you think politicians fall?<br /><br />I'm not a Google fan, but you may know me as pitterpatter.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-24414047102320352402009-02-12T18:18:00.000-08:002009-02-12T18:18:00.000-08:00@rone: Please be a bit more specific about the st...@rone: Please be a bit more specific about the strawman you feel I've created. Second, on the one hand ecology is defined as "a branch of science concerned with the interrelationship of organisms and their environments", so I'd posit that it's a superset of the study of evolution, but on the other hand I didn't mention ecology. And last, historically, the obvious truth of a proposition has never been a significant impediment to debate about it.<BR/><BR/>@scrib71: I also believe in evolution, in both senses of the word. (I will say that, being raised fundamentalist agnostic, I look on it in a manner somewhat reminiscent of Pascal's Wager, in that if the world is as godless as it appears, then a study of evolution is useful and worthwhile. If, on the other hand, God created the universe, then he also created all this abundant evidence of evolution, so chances are he wants us to study it. The last possibility, if God created the universe, along with all this evidence of evolution, yet for some reason wants us to distrust the minds and eyes he gave us, then he's being an obnoxious tool, and I'll study evolution just to spite him.)<BR/><BR/>Lesser probably isn't the right word. I think what I was looking for was more akin to "older" or "less evolved". My understanding is that most primate species have been around for longer than H. Sapiens Sapiens. I believe the current theories are that we didn't evolve directly from any currently extant species of primate, but that we all share a common ancestor (duh), and that the H. Sapiens line broke off after most of the other species of primate did. So the phrase "I'll be a monkey's uncle" should probably be rephrased to "I'll be a monkey's nephew."<BR/><BR/>I'm not saying that <I>I want</I> to dump nuclear waste in the Amazon. <I>I'm</I> not the one that's worried about species extinction. I'm not a big fan of suffering either. I like your trench idea. I also like the idea of putting it in a big pile with a chain link fence around it saying "if you cross this fence you will die". People crossing the fence anyhow would give us a chance to watch evolution in action.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11029125710273972322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-10294507101348570542009-02-12T17:49:00.000-08:002009-02-12T17:49:00.000-08:00I believe in evolution, in both senses of the word...I believe in evolution, in both senses of the word. I would even point out that there is no such thing as a "lesser" primate unless you mean size. Evolution doesn't progress from "lesser" to "greater" as it doesn't "progress." Time passes, pressures change, and traits may re-evolve that had been lost.<BR/><BR/>I've often pointed out that the only "man-made" substance on Earth is plutonium(1). Everything else is just a clever combination of stuff that we found.<BR/><BR/>As for evolution, just today at work someone was talking about polar bears and that they face extinction if the ice caps melt. I asked "so what?" It would suck for the bears, but something else would move into the new habitat - and it would probably be a habitat humans find more aesthetically appealing. It's interesting to live in a world with polar bears, but there's nothing special about them that wasn't true of carrier pigeons, mammoths, pterodactyls, or trilobites.<BR/><BR/>As for nuclear waste in rain forests, well, tricky. I've always thought we should dump it in a deep sea trench and see what turns out to be living on the radiation in 50 years. That far from the sun, any source of energy gets utilized! It could lead to some advances in nuclear energy technology... How's THAT for "believing" in evolution?<BR/><BR/>The rain forests might actually be under less pressure to change with nuclear waste keeping loggers out. However, radiation poisoning would cause suffering in the short term as the individuals less adapted to the radiation were eliminated. I am not a fan of suffering, personally, so I wouldn't vote for that proposal (see "trenches"). Pressuring change for the sake of change just seems a bit pointless.<BR/><BR/>(1) This is true in spirit, but traces of one isotope can be found in nature and there are other short-lived isotopes you won't find outside an accelerator.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-57396881503615190192009-02-12T11:39:00.000-08:002009-02-12T11:39:00.000-08:00Nice strawman. I don't know how evolution and ecol...Nice strawman. I don't know how evolution and ecology are somehow opposed. They're not even on the same axis.<BR/><BR/>There isn't even any such thing as an "evolution debate"; there's only people who cling to religious dogma, and people who don't.ronehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10746089563080990103noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-89772086103122700382009-01-30T13:51:00.000-08:002009-01-30T13:51:00.000-08:00Value may be intangible, but it can be consumed, j...Value may be intangible, but it can be consumed, just as it can be created. Value is not an intrinsic property of an object, but instead is an intrinsic property of the relationship of an individual to a good or service. So the transformation of a good from one form to another, or a difference in the quality of a service, will make either a positive or negative difference in the value any individual places on that good or service. With reference to a population, this manifests itself as a difference in the integral of the percieved value over the population, constrained to the effective demand. A change in the nature of a good will effect a change in the distribution of rational pricing. If I buy an apple, I collapse the cost distribution to a single point represented by the price I paid. The value distribution among the market for people who may want to buy that apple may well include people who are willing to pay more than my cost. It's rational for me to resell that apple to one of those people at a profit. Presumably, those people did not have access to or knowledge of where I bought my apple, thus providing me an opportunity for profit via arbitrage. If I polish that apple, or bake it up with some cinnamon and sugar, then it's very possible that the population of those willing to pay more than my cost will expand, making it rational for me to increase the price I charge. Thus, value has been created. If, on the other hand, I eat the apple and pass it through my digestive tract, then the distribution of how the population will value what remains is almost certain to fall entirely below the cost I paid for it, thus meaning that value has been consumed.<BR/><BR/>So, the universe isn't in a steady state with respect to value, because it can be both consumed and created. There is an important thing to note that I failed to emphasize. Money flows in the opposite direction to value, and is also a unit of measurement for value, but the flow is necessarily asymmetric. Given freedom, no one will pay more money for something than the value they place on it. They will, however, pay what the market demands if the value they place on the good is larger.<BR/><BR/>I can easily visualize the graphical representations of these distribution graphs in my head. Someday I hope to find software that will let me share those mental images with everyone else. So far, that search has been fruitless (although, in all fairness, it hasn't been a particularly aggressive search...)Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11029125710273972322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-36818030259047610112009-01-30T12:09:00.000-08:002009-01-30T12:09:00.000-08:00Nice essay, but I don't believe the claim that kee...Nice essay, but I don't believe the claim that keeping his name will keep people from trusting him in the future. <BR/>First, people who make their living swindling others are SO persuasive. <BR/>Second, people in general are SO forgetful. They'll remember the name, but not the reason they remember it. So the name would probably help him with lots of people. <BR/>But I don't know what to do with him either. I personally lean toward revenge and deterrence, but really vicious punishments didn't seem to work all that well up through Victorian times, so I don't know. I do think Singapore has it right with canings etc for many situations. It's a lot cheaper, there's more public humiliation, and the pain might be a deterrent for people who would actually seek out "3 hots and a cot." On the other hand, a good caning would probably kill Madoff.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-62394403920826520172009-01-28T06:19:00.000-08:002009-01-28T06:19:00.000-08:00Very good. If you're so inclined, go have a perus...Very good. If you're so inclined, go have a peruse of mises.org<BR/><BR/>Some few comments - <BR/>value is, as you noted, in the eye of the beholder. It is not an intrinsic property of the thing being considered, else there would never be any question as to price or trade.<BR/><BR/>"...consume value at the same rate as it is created." I disagree. Value is a perception, an intangible, and cannot be 'consumed'. There is no limit to the amount of value I can invoke at will, merely a limit on my ability to demonstrate it with money, time, or the ultimate measure of time, my life. Likewise there is no limitation on my ability to change my Value arbirtarily, at whim. You could try to define other terms for this 'Stuff' you're trying to find, the Goo which flows the other way from money, but 'value' is close enough for now. If it were consumed then the universe would be in a 'steady state' with a balanced equation and (this is the important part) nobody's standard of living would ever increase. The outward evidence of value is wealth, which is the increase in the standard of living. As this is being noticeably improved over time the equation must not be balanced - and this is a Good Thing. This is the magic which most economists completely fail to understand: it is NOT a zero-sum game.LWOhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08520112114484448267noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-90055022722433197542009-01-27T15:18:00.000-08:002009-01-27T15:18:00.000-08:00I'd credit it all to the extra Bechamel sauce.I'd credit it all to the extra Bechamel sauce.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-50660170755368989872008-12-25T16:37:00.000-08:002008-12-25T16:37:00.000-08:00Of course, you might view the situation as being t...Of course, you might view the situation as being thus: Ohio lost that war too, although they chose to fight on the same side as the Federal Government, which won it. That's why Ohio is now part of a monoculture that didn't have to come into being.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6619808580341005853.post-79423202616894872822008-12-17T13:32:00.000-08:002008-12-17T13:32:00.000-08:00It isn't made explicit here that the New Hampshire...It isn't made explicit here that the New Hampshire State motto is (or was, I don't know if they've changed) printed on vehicle license tags.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com