jmckib

24 ms·

181.
by jmckib 12y ago
I wasn't suggesting that we scrap the Antitrust Division of the US Department of Justice specifically. You make a good argument that we still need them. However, there are many other areas in which the government could be scaled back w
182.
by jmckib 12y ago
What about the common libertarian viewpoint that we should limit the scope of government so that the rich guys don't have any significant political power to hijack? This comes without the slowing of economic growth that would be caused
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by jmckib 12y ago
Agreed, from the home page I imagined I would have to do measurements by myself and input them into the app, which sounds like a pain. This sounds a lot more appealing, especially the accuracy claim: > We sell men’s custom shirts by meas
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by jmckib 12y ago
I think that given the right incentives, people will learn something even if it is dismal and boring, like economics is for a lot of people. I'm sure you can think of some examples. However, as I said in the post above, there is no inc
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by jmckib 12y ago
You're right that the abstract doesn't mention it, but check out section 3.4.
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by jmckib 12y ago
> Except for the fact that he was selling them secret compartments, witnessed one stuffed full of almost a million dollars in cash, and continued doing business with them. Is having large amounts of cash illegal now? I still don't s
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by jmckib 12y ago
BBB is bullshit, agreed, but Yelp has made recent attempts to dispel the accusations of extortion, see http://www.yelp.com/advertiser_faq . This includes an independent academic study, http://papers.ssrn.com/
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by jmckib 12y ago
Thanks! Here's my economic explanation for why people don't understand economics or have intelligent political opinions in general: there's just no incentive to. Understanding economics is hard, and for the individual there&#
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by jmckib 12y ago
Of course the labor market isn't perfectly free, but it is approximately free, especially in the long run. Price signals do exist. A silly example but it demonstrates the point: if everybody suddenly decided they wanted a massage every
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by jmckib 12y ago
I think you missed the point. I am arguing that a union would benefit bus drivers at the expense of all other people.
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by jmckib 12y ago
No, it doesn't. You ignored the part about price signals and how valuable they are.
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by jmckib 12y ago
You're right, something like this could cause friends and family to have to separate. Creative destruction sucks, but I would argue that the benefits to society are worth it. I can't fault you for having a different opinion on the
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by jmckib 12y ago
I see you're getting downvoted, but you are absolutely right. If the wages for job X in location Y are too low to be affordable, people will either relocate or find a new job, causing the wages for job X in location Y to increase. I do
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by jmckib 12y ago
> The union would do what unions always do--shift some of the economic surplus that the company is currently enjoying (paying less for the bus service than the value it provides) to the workers. One thing worth mentioning here: if prices
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by jmckib 12y ago
As somebody who is interested in improving my awareness of local politics, I think this is really great. Not only have these guys created a beautiful interface for viewing budget allocations, they have actually convinced governments to use
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by jmckib 12y ago
The author said he struck out with sfpl, but a quick search showed that there are 10 copies, with 3 available. Am I missing something?
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by jmckib 12y ago
Wouldn't any such network need to collect a percentage of each transaction? Otherwise, what's the incentive to run the network competently?
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by jmckib 12y ago
> engaging in immortal practices to eliminate competition Since when is poaching employees considered immoral?
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by jmckib 12y ago
I once blocked a driveway in SF by accident (tiny garage door and the curb was still there), and I ended up having to pay near $1000 to get my car back a few hours later. Where does the money go? I remember being disturbed that the towing l
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by jmckib 12y ago
Where did you see anything about Uber canceling rides specifically as a tactic to make Lyft lose money? Everything I've seen has indicated that the rides were canceled because the Uber recruiters realized they were calling a Lyft drive
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by jmckib 12y ago
I find it odd that the author takes it for granted that we are in a tech bubble. Is this considered common knowledge nowadays?
202.
by jmckib 12y ago
Not sure if this is full answer, but from the article: > Kim said he would do just fine because he has built a loyal customer base over the company's 80-year history and now receives an additional 2,000 hails daily through the haili
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by jmckib 12y ago
I agree with your point that in general one shouldn't be able to use money to skirt the law, but I can hardly be infuriated with Uber for violating laws that only exist to fleece consumers by preventing competition in the taxi industry
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by jmckib 12y ago
Uber already has a few competitors; traditional taxis, limo services, blackcarssf.com, Lyft and Sidecar come to mind. > people tend to overestimate the amount of jobs available (or rather, the variety of the skillsets these drivers might
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by jmckib 12y ago
Supply and demand: http://www.investopedia.com/university/economics/economics3....
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by jmckib 12y ago
I agree with you that a minimum wage can be beneficial in industries where wages are not negotiated between parties of equal strength, for example, the giant Walmart that employs half the people in town. In this case, economic models show t
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by jmckib 12y ago
Ah, sorry to knock your country of residence, perhaps unions work differently in Sweden. In the USA, unions use their monopoly power to push wages above the competitive rate, at the expense of consumers, the unemployed, and nonunion workers
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by jmckib 12y ago
> I miss the days of more regulation, but won't use Uber merely because they don't guarantee union wages etc like the other companies do. This raises the question, do you refuse to use any service that doesn't guarantee un
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by jmckib 12y ago
> I've used Uber and really like the service when I'm going a fare (sorry) distance. But they are just as bad, if not worse, than cabs when it's only a short trip around the city. I'm interested in hearing more about
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by jmckib 12y ago
There are already two powerful forces protecting consumers, reputation and tort law. A taxi service with poor service will not be in business for long, because its reputation will crumble, and if the service is truly negligent (for example,

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