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> One point is that the things that have increased in cost are more heavily regulated/government controlled than the items that haven't. > I did hear an intere
by palmotea 10mo ago
> One point is that the things that have increased in cost are more heavily regulated/government controlled than the items that haven't.
> I did hear an interesting quote from someone techy that said "If you punch a whole in a plasterboard wall, it is now cheaper to buy a TV to cover the hole than get someone to repair the plasterboard."
Isn't that Baumol's cost disease (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baumol_effect), not regulation? As manufactured goods get cheaper, labor gets relatively expensive. The expensive part of patching a hole in a wall is not the materials, it's having a guy come and do that work. There's no opportunity for automation or economies of scale with having a guy come over to your house to deal with your specific situation, but there are tons of those in a factory.
An even cheaper way of covering the hole than a TV is to hang up a rough piece of drywall without competent installation.
Also, I'd be wary of quotes from "someone techy," tech people can be pretty shallow and stupid, and it's pretty obvious that whoever was said that quote was going for shock/cleverness and sacrificed truth and understanding.
- rahimnathwani 10mo agoand it's pretty obvious that whoever was said that quote was going for shock/cleverness and sacrificed truth and understanding It's not obvious from the quote, which just states something that is obviously true, and doesn't attempt to explain it. But ... Andreessen has elsewhere claimed it's due to regulation: https://pmarca.substack.com/p/why-ai-wont-cause-unemployment https://pmarca.substack.com/p/why-ai-wont-cause-unemployment But ... more recently his firm has explained they know what Baumol's cost disease is: https://a16z.com/why-ac-is-cheap-but-ac-repair-is-a-luxury/ https://a16z.com/why-ac-is-cheap-but-ac-repair-is-a-luxury/
- palmotea 10mo agoIs Andreessen the source of the OP's quote? He does have his head up his ass, so I wouldn't be surprised [1]. However, he doesn't really say anything close enough in either of the articles you linked. [1] FFS, he really implies day care is expensive because regulation is preventing "technology [from] whipping through" the sector like it has in TV manufacturing. I don't want to live in his nightmare fantasy. But in the spirit of deregulation and techno-utopianism, here's an idea to use technology to slash day care prices that's held back by evil government regulation: lock kids in padded rooms while their parents work. Maybe stick a TV on the wall playing Cocomelon. It requires no labor for supervision, and the kids can't get hurt because the room is padded. That's a "technological innovation" that will "push down prices while increasing quality," for certain definitions of "quality."
- rahimnathwani 10mo agoHowever, he doesn't really say anything close enough in either of the articles you linked. Check the first paragraph of the first article. It says 'Source: Marc Andreessen' and links to a YouTube video where they discuss it.
- palmotea 10mo agoI don't know how I missed that. Thanks.