Confessions of a Guilty Hedonist

I probably won’t every have kids, and that’s a good thing! Given this recent Time Magazine article on how much kids cost, it’s a wonder how anyone can afford to raise them. This is more than just the upfront cost in dollars; kids take away energy that can be spent pursuing hobbies or focusing on oneself. Of course, if everyone were as selfish as I am, the world would probably end.

Another article that has me interested is this analysis from Naked Capitalism (rapidly becoming one of my favourite blog sites) on sluggish consumer spending for the foreseeable future. No doubt, the average consumer’s personal balance sheet has taken a beating from the recession. Now, if they had the prescience to amass savings beforehand, they wouldn’t be suffering as much now. From a policy standpoint, I would change the taxation system to discourage consumption and to reward saving and investment. This means low corporate taxes, low income taxes, and high consumption taxes in terms of a sales tax or VAT (preferably).

Reading that article makes me glad that Chinese people are disciplined enough to have such high savings rates.

European Recovery; American Stagnation

Europe’s economy seems to have swerved back to growth (albeit still quite minimal). It will be many years though before the full effects of growth can be felt in the labour markets. In contrast, the fundamentals upon which the US economy has been built seem shaky, and the country can only talk about a slowing in the decline. This wasn’t helped by the massive bailouts, which only reset the balance sheets but did nothing to discourage excessive risk-taking with other people’s money, which is the basis for the current crisis. Banks still remain too big to fail and bankers are still overpaid. In addition, I spotted an interesting article today about some assumptions about the US economy, namely that it encourages dynamic entrepreneurship and offers unparalleled socioeconomic mobility. Make what you will of it.

The Danger of Competition

Competition is good, or so we’re taught. It has been the cause of low prices as companies compete for business, productivity improvements as workers vie for raises and promotions. However, there is an insidious side to this as well. I’m sure you can see that competition can drive companies out of business and stress out workers. There’s something more insidious though. Children competing in sports can suffer lifelong injuries as they ramp up the practice hours. Their developing bodies and fragile bones are not accustomed to the punishing physical play most sports require. It didn’t used to be like this, but recently every parent is pushing his/her kid to succeed in all areas, sports included. When everyone does this at the same time, the end result is the same but everyone has expended more effort.

Over time, businesses have evolved techniques for colluding to keep prices high and to avoid competing. Likewise, unions are the natural way workers have developed to keep wages high and work minimal. There’s nothing comparable for students. Wouldn’t it be great (from a health perspective) if all student athletes got together and set mandatory limits on practice time or students voluntarily deciding to limit study time. The problem is in enforcement. There will always be rogue elements that ignore the agreement to gain an upper hand. It’s the classical prisoner’s dilemma.

Hat tip to Charles Wheelan.

The Truth About Facebook

Someone finally has the courage to say it:

Facebook isn’t for your friends. Your real friends know what you’re doing already, they can contact you when they want to. Your “fake” friends are the ones on facebook, the ones you never want to call you directly.

Facebook is just an online advertisement of yourself. Look at all the cool things I’m doing. Look at how busy I am. Look at how cool I am. Don’t you wish you could be my real friend?

Your real friends know how fake that is. The “concert” you just went to was just a couple of guys playing in a coffeeshop and you left after 15 minutes so that you could get back to playing World of Warcraft. That “party” you went to was actually a LAN party, or worse, a console party where everyone takes turns playing Halo 3 against each other. You have a very ordinary, boring life.

If your Facebook page was a real ad, you’d be sued for false advertising. Ad was deceiptive, implied he/she was doing a lot of stuff but all this person does is play computer games! I want my time back!

Incredible how many people are doing so many cool things in their lives, I wonder how they even have time to eat or sleep when I see their facebook page. How are they able to keep up with their hundreds of friends. Uh, they can’t. Those are just Facebook friends, they could pass each other in the street without recognizing one another.

Where are the Facebook pages with real people with only a few friends? And entries like, “I played World of Warcraft yesterday. Went to sleep, then played computer games when I woke up. Repeat for week”? Come on let’s get real here.

I feel that these online sites pressure teens to act popular all the time. Now not only is it important to dress the right way, do the right things (and people), but this act doesn’t end away from school. One is also required to pretend to do cool things online to show off.