- This topic has 120 replies, 21 voices, and was last updated 17 years, 4 months ago by
Alex_angel.
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June 12, 2007 at 5:16 PM #58856June 12, 2007 at 5:16 PM #58829
kewp
ParticipantSure, higher quality of life at the expense of those who actually earn the money. But personally it would be depressing to see the lack of motivation and low achievement in those around me. If you look forward to those things, you can enjoy them in France right now. 🙂
Not sure what your point is, in a recent article by the Economist *Ireland* was named the country with the highest quality of life. France and the US (ranked 13th) didn’t even make the top ten. All but one of which, I might add, are European.
1 Ireland
2 Switzerland
3 Norway
4 Luxembourg
5 Sweden
6 Australia
7 Iceland
8 Italy
9 Denmark
10 Spainsource: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4020523.stm
None of the countries above exactly have a reputation of being slackers, either. Except those damn, dirty Danes, of course! 😉
On that note, I would really, *really* like to see some statistics regarding how hard folks of the various income classes work. Other than the idle super-rich and unemployed super-poor, I’ll suspect its pretty similar across the board.
June 12, 2007 at 5:16 PM #58858ParticipantSure, higher quality of life at the expense of those who actually earn the money. But personally it would be depressing to see the lack of motivation and low achievement in those around me. If you look forward to those things, you can enjoy them in France right now. 🙂
Not sure what your point is, in a recent article by the Economist *Ireland* was named the country with the highest quality of life. France and the US (ranked 13th) didn’t even make the top ten. All but one of which, I might add, are European.
1 Ireland
2 Switzerland
3 Norway
4 Luxembourg
5 Sweden
6 Australia
7 Iceland
8 Italy
9 Denmark
10 Spainsource: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/4020523.stm
None of the countries above exactly have a reputation of being slackers, either. Except those damn, dirty Danes, of course! 😉
On that note, I would really, *really* like to see some statistics regarding how hard folks of the various income classes work. Other than the idle super-rich and unemployed super-poor, I’ll suspect its pretty similar across the board.
June 12, 2007 at 5:18 PM #58831jeeman
ParticipantHaha, a conservative was elected, but I doubt he would have much effect on the populace.
June 12, 2007 at 5:18 PM #58860ParticipantHaha, a conservative was elected, but I doubt he would have much effect on the populace.
June 12, 2007 at 5:18 PM #58833SD Realtor
ParticipantPD I think that is the biggest misconception we keep seeing over and over again here, (on Piggington), is that the Fed controls rates. The fed controls the overnight rate, not the rates set for bond yields…never has… never will.
SD Realtor
June 12, 2007 at 5:18 PM #58862ParticipantPD I think that is the biggest misconception we keep seeing over and over again here, (on Piggington), is that the Fed controls rates. The fed controls the overnight rate, not the rates set for bond yields…never has… never will.
SD Realtor
June 12, 2007 at 5:26 PM #58837PerryChase
ParticipantFrance just had legislative elections and they are going the American way, right now.
——–
Politics aside, I think that our free market has caused serious mis-allocation of resources. When money is cheap, it’s easy to spend other people’s money on pie-in-the-sky projects. High tech is mostly fluff.Let me give you an example. I know of a company that spent a bundle bringing fiber to the desktop of every employee a few years back. They complete the project and gigabit ethernet is available over copper at 1/10th the price. Money down the drain, but that’s OK because, there’s more money coming.
Biotech is another dot-con waiting to happen. All those drugs don’t cure anything and aren’t anymore effective than the existing medication.
We have lots of “hope” industries and fewer “real” industries. When we run out of hope then the values will come crashing.
Sure, higher rates will hurt a lot of people as the market adjusts. But that’s the reality of a free market. Higher rates will cause us to invest more in Warren Buffet stuff instead of dot-con industries — selling overvalued stocks and houses to each other, the value of which is only what the next buyer is willing to pay.
June 12, 2007 at 5:26 PM #58866ParticipantFrance just had legislative elections and they are going the American way, right now.
——–
Politics aside, I think that our free market has caused serious mis-allocation of resources. When money is cheap, it’s easy to spend other people’s money on pie-in-the-sky projects. High tech is mostly fluff.Let me give you an example. I know of a company that spent a bundle bringing fiber to the desktop of every employee a few years back. They complete the project and gigabit ethernet is available over copper at 1/10th the price. Money down the drain, but that’s OK because, there’s more money coming.
Biotech is another dot-con waiting to happen. All those drugs don’t cure anything and aren’t anymore effective than the existing medication.
We have lots of “hope” industries and fewer “real” industries. When we run out of hope then the values will come crashing.
Sure, higher rates will hurt a lot of people as the market adjusts. But that’s the reality of a free market. Higher rates will cause us to invest more in Warren Buffet stuff instead of dot-con industries — selling overvalued stocks and houses to each other, the value of which is only what the next buyer is willing to pay.
June 12, 2007 at 5:47 PM #58843an
ParticipantCompletely agree with you SD R. If the fed controls long term rate, then we wouldn’t be in a flat yield curve situation we’re in now.
June 12, 2007 at 5:47 PM #58872ParticipantCompletely agree with you SD R. If the fed controls long term rate, then we wouldn’t be in a flat yield curve situation we’re in now.
June 12, 2007 at 5:56 PM #58847drunkle
Participanti just went through most of the linked munger transcription and i have a couple thoughts.
he doesn’t say (or maybe i missed, i’ll be going back to reread it) anything about judgement. he gives a laundry list of psychological ticks and after reading them, recognizing them and trying to stop them, you can end up in a mental paralysis where everything causes pause. at the end of the day, you have to make decisions and that requires judgement, judgement that comes from knowledge. the ticks themselves are insights, knowledge that can help in preventing manipulations, but don’t in themselves give you anything else.
maybe that’s self evident, but i think it’s important enough to note… i read the thing, i’m impervious to salesmen, what now? i still need to buy a car. well… more learning. learning, learning, and more learning.
as for the jeeman, who posted the link and is apparently doing a presentation on it… i’m sure you know that munger’s attitude towards psychological manipulation is derogatory. as well, you may want to reconsider your use of biased language and attitude, particularly when posting a link to a lecture that specifically warns against such.
not meaning to be rude, i certainly appreciated your enlightening posts on how bonds work. but the irony can’t be ignored…
June 12, 2007 at 5:56 PM #58876Participanti just went through most of the linked munger transcription and i have a couple thoughts.
he doesn’t say (or maybe i missed, i’ll be going back to reread it) anything about judgement. he gives a laundry list of psychological ticks and after reading them, recognizing them and trying to stop them, you can end up in a mental paralysis where everything causes pause. at the end of the day, you have to make decisions and that requires judgement, judgement that comes from knowledge. the ticks themselves are insights, knowledge that can help in preventing manipulations, but don’t in themselves give you anything else.
maybe that’s self evident, but i think it’s important enough to note… i read the thing, i’m impervious to salesmen, what now? i still need to buy a car. well… more learning. learning, learning, and more learning.
as for the jeeman, who posted the link and is apparently doing a presentation on it… i’m sure you know that munger’s attitude towards psychological manipulation is derogatory. as well, you may want to reconsider your use of biased language and attitude, particularly when posting a link to a lecture that specifically warns against such.
not meaning to be rude, i certainly appreciated your enlightening posts on how bonds work. but the irony can’t be ignored…
June 12, 2007 at 6:05 PM #58849Participant“Politics aside, I think that our free market has caused serious mis-allocation of resources. When money is cheap, it’s easy to spend other people’s money on pie-in-the-sky projects. High tech is mostly fluff. ”
i dunno. i’d like to think of human knowledge as being the sum of pie in the sky projects. otherwise, we’d all still be digging for grubs and picking wild berries.
June 12, 2007 at 6:05 PM #58878Participant“Politics aside, I think that our free market has caused serious mis-allocation of resources. When money is cheap, it’s easy to spend other people’s money on pie-in-the-sky projects. High tech is mostly fluff. ”
i dunno. i’d like to think of human knowledge as being the sum of pie in the sky projects. otherwise, we’d all still be digging for grubs and picking wild berries.
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