> That ideal doesn't exist, and probably can't, in the real world. Yes it does, and it's a reality throughout the economy not just an ideal. > Hospitals are often losing money because they're covering the cost…
Investors/entrepreneurs are attracted to businesses that show promise to be profitable, and turn away from making investment in unprofitable businesses. This is a basic economics principle - I'm not assuming anything. I…
> Defendants of the current system argue free market but the result is the most expensive health care I've ever seen. Interesting, but the current system in the US isn't "free market". It's communistic. - 80%+ of…
1. Health care does follow the rules of supply and demand. It's erroneous to claim otherwise. 2. Many if not most health care costs are not emergency services, and they include many elective non-emergency procedures,…
That's one example. There are 5,500+ hospitals in the US, so one example is hardly representative. There would be many more investments if it was more profitable. As the link I posted states - many are not profitable…
What wrong with a for-profit system? There should be MORE profit, not less. High profits attract entrepreneurs to compete for customers by offering lower prices and innovating - consumers benefit. The current system is…
The costs incurred by people not paying for their medical services are relatively small, less than 5% of all health care costs. A much bigger issue is higher insurance premiums due to unhealthy lifestyles. Preventable…
That's a lot of assumptions for 2 sentences.
I think "Ludic fallacy" might be a more accurate fallacy to cite. The Ludic fallacy refers to making predictions based on past events, even though the probability of future outcomes includes variables not contained in…
No, inflation is not only in people's minds, it's a real measurable monetary phenomenon. Sellers can raise prices but if there is not enough money to pay the price then no transactions occur, The sellers would then have…
Also I believe a balanced budget amendment was enacted in Brazil around that time.
Demand should be depressed because it was artificially stimulated before. ie. if demand for homes was normal and not stimulated by easy money then there would not have been a housing bubble. a dotcom bubble. etc.…
We already had way too much government investment encouragement with artificially low interest rates for years. People do not need more incentives to spend. btw, we still have rockbottom low interest rates. What…
How about this: When a blind fat man gets depressed, you console him first. You don't immediately put him in a go-kart with a fistful of antidepressants,a bottle of gin and a sword in order to combat the lack of…
Taleb's criticism of methodology in economics echoes Austrian criticism of economic engineering and the various mainstream economic models. For example, in the Black Swan, Taleb mentions Hayek, the Nobel Prize winning…
I have to disagree. The "micro-sites" you are talking about, and the long-tail SEO people are complaining about, are nothing new at all. It's been common for SEOs to build and rank sites like that for at least 5+ years.…
Capitalism doesn't work because of accumulation of capital - in fact it might be argued that the more capital is transferred around the better in capitalism, which is why free markets and trade are advocated. Capitalism…
"I just think that purely mathematical errors are relatively rare" It's more common than you would think. Math error equals loss of Mars orbiter NASA reported Sept. 30 that it had lost the $125 million Mars Climate…
And my point, which you get to at the end of your msg, is that a mathematical or logical error can invalidate a hypothesis regardless of the subject matter of the datapoints being measured. If you say 10 nuclear…
I agree with most of what you said. However, you don't need to be knowledgeable of a particular field to find faults in a scientific study. Logic, reasoning and mathematics can be used to identify methodological errors…
Technology isn't the only comparative advantage. Nor, is it necessarily the best option when maximizing comparative advantage over another firm. Nor, is implementing new technology necessarily a comparative advantage,…
I'm glad to see a post highlighted here which shows the limits of bright engineers and hacking in a business. Google Wave is just one high profile example.. Being full of engineering-minded people, Hacker News has a…
(edit: reply to _delirium, not sure this might be out of order, oops) As you mention, those stats are only for the UC system (no source), but leave out a whole chunk of other relevant data. The author is addressing what…
"Forum traffic, unless it's very targeted to a specific niche, does NOT convert well. You won't get a good CPM no matter what." No, I'm talking about informational and news/blog sites that have hundreds or thousands of…
"Typically, AdSense pays much, much more poorly than individually negotiated advertising buys" What you are saying is true in some but not all cases... It's a bit more complicated than that and depends on how targeted…
> That ideal doesn't exist, and probably can't, in the real world. Yes it does, and it's a reality throughout the economy not just an ideal. > Hospitals are often losing money because they're covering the cost…
Investors/entrepreneurs are attracted to businesses that show promise to be profitable, and turn away from making investment in unprofitable businesses. This is a basic economics principle - I'm not assuming anything. I…
> Defendants of the current system argue free market but the result is the most expensive health care I've ever seen. Interesting, but the current system in the US isn't "free market". It's communistic. - 80%+ of…
1. Health care does follow the rules of supply and demand. It's erroneous to claim otherwise. 2. Many if not most health care costs are not emergency services, and they include many elective non-emergency procedures,…
That's one example. There are 5,500+ hospitals in the US, so one example is hardly representative. There would be many more investments if it was more profitable. As the link I posted states - many are not profitable…
What wrong with a for-profit system? There should be MORE profit, not less. High profits attract entrepreneurs to compete for customers by offering lower prices and innovating - consumers benefit. The current system is…
The costs incurred by people not paying for their medical services are relatively small, less than 5% of all health care costs. A much bigger issue is higher insurance premiums due to unhealthy lifestyles. Preventable…
That's a lot of assumptions for 2 sentences.
I think "Ludic fallacy" might be a more accurate fallacy to cite. The Ludic fallacy refers to making predictions based on past events, even though the probability of future outcomes includes variables not contained in…
No, inflation is not only in people's minds, it's a real measurable monetary phenomenon. Sellers can raise prices but if there is not enough money to pay the price then no transactions occur, The sellers would then have…
Also I believe a balanced budget amendment was enacted in Brazil around that time.
Demand should be depressed because it was artificially stimulated before. ie. if demand for homes was normal and not stimulated by easy money then there would not have been a housing bubble. a dotcom bubble. etc.…
We already had way too much government investment encouragement with artificially low interest rates for years. People do not need more incentives to spend. btw, we still have rockbottom low interest rates. What…
How about this: When a blind fat man gets depressed, you console him first. You don't immediately put him in a go-kart with a fistful of antidepressants,a bottle of gin and a sword in order to combat the lack of…
Taleb's criticism of methodology in economics echoes Austrian criticism of economic engineering and the various mainstream economic models. For example, in the Black Swan, Taleb mentions Hayek, the Nobel Prize winning…
I have to disagree. The "micro-sites" you are talking about, and the long-tail SEO people are complaining about, are nothing new at all. It's been common for SEOs to build and rank sites like that for at least 5+ years.…
Capitalism doesn't work because of accumulation of capital - in fact it might be argued that the more capital is transferred around the better in capitalism, which is why free markets and trade are advocated. Capitalism…
"I just think that purely mathematical errors are relatively rare" It's more common than you would think. Math error equals loss of Mars orbiter NASA reported Sept. 30 that it had lost the $125 million Mars Climate…
And my point, which you get to at the end of your msg, is that a mathematical or logical error can invalidate a hypothesis regardless of the subject matter of the datapoints being measured. If you say 10 nuclear…
I agree with most of what you said. However, you don't need to be knowledgeable of a particular field to find faults in a scientific study. Logic, reasoning and mathematics can be used to identify methodological errors…
Technology isn't the only comparative advantage. Nor, is it necessarily the best option when maximizing comparative advantage over another firm. Nor, is implementing new technology necessarily a comparative advantage,…
I'm glad to see a post highlighted here which shows the limits of bright engineers and hacking in a business. Google Wave is just one high profile example.. Being full of engineering-minded people, Hacker News has a…
(edit: reply to _delirium, not sure this might be out of order, oops) As you mention, those stats are only for the UC system (no source), but leave out a whole chunk of other relevant data. The author is addressing what…
"Forum traffic, unless it's very targeted to a specific niche, does NOT convert well. You won't get a good CPM no matter what." No, I'm talking about informational and news/blog sites that have hundreds or thousands of…
"Typically, AdSense pays much, much more poorly than individually negotiated advertising buys" What you are saying is true in some but not all cases... It's a bit more complicated than that and depends on how targeted…