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> He, an ordinary farmer, has access to the global consensus of the value of it's product at any time: he can be sure he won't be ripped off and can sell for no

> He, an ordinary farmer, has access to the global consensus of the value of it's product at any time: he can be sure he won't be ripped off and can sell for no more or no less than the value of his goods; he can choose to sell at any time, he'll be able to do so instantly. That's a really valuable service. Considering that farming has become uneconomic in my home country (with associated structural problems that will play out in the longer-term), you have really failed to convince me that this is a good thing. Meanwhile, I personally set my own prices and value my own services successfully without there being a commodity market in tech services (just as farmers do with local distributors, in truth). Is the financial industry really providing this service? If so (which I doubt), what percentage of the financial industry is concerned with such practical matters?

darkmighty 12y ago
Farming becoming economic is a great sign to me. It shows there are places with a lot greater efficiency that are competing fiercely with the local source and are forcing specialization. Services are not commodities: a service by one provider is not necessarily indistinguishable from another. Service providers, and producers in general, actually vigorously fight commoditization -- it creates an opportunity for a market, and this improves competitiveness and efficiency. The providers are comfortable with their high margin untradable goods, but consumers get high price variability and discover-ability. Since the service providers fully control the service, they are unlikely to ever allow a market to form. Now imagine the opposite: imagine servers became fully commoditized. The market then would become highly specialized and efficient: you would probably be purchasing server time directly from the server manufacturer (chosen among many) through some contract and a provider (again chosen among many) would actually host the server and electricity for a cost. There's enough competition in the hosting business that this has essentially happened already: the commodity standard has become AWS. Low efficiency providers have been squeezed out for a long time. It's hard to compare this to trading grains or iron, though. The financial industry is 100% concerned with practical matters, since every stock is eventually linked to a real world property, value, good or service. It's a different matter if they are fair, though, as I discussed previously.
- learnstats2 12y ago
  > Farming becoming economic is a great sign to me. So will you go be a farmer? The answer is no, because farmers are getting fucked. Consumers too - food inflation has been off-the-scale (and that money hasn't been going to farmers). Playing dice against PhDs with algorithms is a sure loss.

darkmighty 12y ago

Farming becoming economic is a great sign to me. It shows there are places with a lot greater efficiency that are competing fiercely with the local source and are forcing specialization. Services are not commodities: a service by one provider is not necessarily indistinguishable from another. Service providers, and producers in general, actually vigorously fight commoditization -- it creates an opportunity for a market, and this improves competitiveness and efficiency. The providers are comfortable with their high margin untradable goods, but consumers get high price variability and discover-ability. Since the service providers fully control the service, they are unlikely to ever allow a market to form. Now imagine the opposite: imagine servers became fully commoditized. The market then would become highly specialized and efficient: you would probably be purchasing server time directly from the server manufacturer (chosen among many) through some contract and a provider (again chosen among many) would actually host the server and electricity for a cost. There's enough competition in the hosting business that this has essentially happened already: the commodity standard has become AWS. Low efficiency providers have been squeezed out for a long time. It's hard to compare this to trading grains or iron, though. The financial industry is 100% concerned with practical matters, since every stock is eventually linked to a real world property, value, good or service. It's a different matter if they are fair, though, as I discussed previously.

learnstats2 12y ago
> Farming becoming economic is a great sign to me. So will you go be a farmer? The answer is no, because farmers are getting fucked. Consumers too - food inflation has been off-the-scale (and that money hasn't been going to farmers). Playing dice against PhDs with algorithms is a sure loss.