5 ms·

Don’t worry, the market will take care of it?

by rado 6y ago

gonzo41 6y ago
A dam that presents a deadly risk to downstream inhabitants is actually a really great short term captive market. You have to upgrade and stabilize it or catastrophe! Before you start work, you, the maintainer are in the envious position of being able to set a contract that is based around outcome and not price. Hence, you're going to be rich! As the Dam owner, you're boned. Morale of the story, never be there for the end of life of any infrastructure you commission.
- adrianN 6y ago
  Ah, but do you have to stabilize it now or could you instead use that money for something else and let the next legislative period worry about it?
ekianjo 6y ago
Dams are not built within markets. Most of the time it's a public (i.e. state) mandate. Not surprised that states can't manage anything long term, they have no incentive to do so since officials run for short election periods.
- zaptheimpaler 6y ago
  Ah yes, as opposed to market driven corporations, where the majority of employees probably churn in <5 years.
  - midasuni 6y ago
    Market driven corporations rarely look past the next quarter
    - nickff 6y ago
      Depends on the company; my favorite Scotch is 16 years old.
      - FooHentai 6y ago
        I'm gonna guess what's behind that looks more like a handed-down, long-running family business/dynasty than anything else.
        arethuza 6y ago
        Not really - a lot of Scotch whisky production is large scale industrial operations owned by very large companies such as Diageo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diageo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diageo When I was a student (many years ago) I used to work in the summers at a very large industrial maltings that supplied malt to a lot of the "quality" whisky brands. Edit: Scotland produces about 1.3 billion bottles of whisky a year worth ~£5billion: https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/insights/facts-figures/ https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/insights/facts-figures/ Edit2: There is a Diageo site ~10km from where I live that is 1.5km x 0.5km of warehouses full of whisky!
    - bluGill 6y ago
      They do when they need to pay insurance. Every year they defer maintenance is another year that insurance payments increase. This ensures they maintain things. Of course governments need to require the insurance, but once they do insurance companies are good at figuring out risk. This is much easier for governments to do, than to actually allocate money to do the work when they are the owners. Somehow insurance payments are ignored in government budgeting, probably because they self-insurance and so there is no line item to look at.
  - ekianjo 6y ago
    And yet you also have corporations that are 200 years old at the same time and that plan 20 years in the future. How does that fit in your world view?

Don’t worry, the market will take care of it?

by rado 6y ago

Don’t worry, the market will take care of it?

A dam that presents a deadly risk to downstream inhabitants is actually a really great short term captive market. You have to upgrade and stabilize it or catastrophe! Before you start work, you, the maintainer are in the envious position of being able to set a contract that is based around outcome and not price. Hence, you're going to be rich! As the Dam owner, you're boned. Morale of the story, never be there for the end of life of any infrastructure you commission.

adrianN 6y ago
Ah, but do you have to stabilize it now or could you instead use that money for something else and let the next legislative period worry about it?

ekianjo 6y ago

Dams are not built within markets. Most of the time it's a public (i.e. state) mandate. Not surprised that states can't manage anything long term, they have no incentive to do so since officials run for short election periods.

zaptheimpaler 6y ago
Ah yes, as opposed to market driven corporations, where the majority of employees probably churn in <5 years.
- midasuni 6y ago
  Market driven corporations rarely look past the next quarter
  - nickff 6y ago
    Depends on the company; my favorite Scotch is 16 years old.
    - FooHentai 6y ago
      I'm gonna guess what's behind that looks more like a handed-down, long-running family business/dynasty than anything else.
      - arethuza 6y ago
        Not really - a lot of Scotch whisky production is large scale industrial operations owned by very large companies such as Diageo: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diageo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diageo When I was a student (many years ago) I used to work in the summers at a very large industrial maltings that supplied malt to a lot of the "quality" whisky brands. Edit: Scotland produces about 1.3 billion bottles of whisky a year worth ~£5billion: https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/insights/facts-figures/ https://www.scotch-whisky.org.uk/insights/facts-figures/ Edit2: There is a Diageo site ~10km from where I live that is 1.5km x 0.5km of warehouses full of whisky!
  - bluGill 6y ago
    They do when they need to pay insurance. Every year they defer maintenance is another year that insurance payments increase. This ensures they maintain things. Of course governments need to require the insurance, but once they do insurance companies are good at figuring out risk. This is much easier for governments to do, than to actually allocate money to do the work when they are the owners. Somehow insurance payments are ignored in government budgeting, probably because they self-insurance and so there is no line item to look at.
- ekianjo 6y ago
  And yet you also have corporations that are 200 years old at the same time and that plan 20 years in the future. How does that fit in your world view?