tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.comments2023-03-14T04:18:32.571-04:00Eric ReasonsEric Reasonshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05688830134012824642noreply@blogger.comBlogger59125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-58988229336837021332021-12-05T09:41:40.014-05:002021-12-05T09:41:40.014-05:00Update: As predicted, I got COVID-19.
In total, 8...Update: As predicted, I got COVID-19.<br /><br />In total, 8 members of my extended family all contracted it together. All but 2 were vaccinated. <br />We got it from one person, who was vaccinated. <br />She, contracted it from another person, who was also vaccinated. <br /><br />Thankfully, all in the family have recovered completely, and as predicted, had mostly mild to moderate symptoms. None of us were hospitalized. 2 were utterly asymptomatic, both vaccinated. <br /><br />The plural of anecdote is not data, I'm well aware, but it seems that my conclusions were in line with our experience. <br /><br />The vaccine did little to halt the spread through the family. The only people in close contact who didn't contract COVID-19 were those that previously had it. <br /><br />However, the vaccine appears to have been very efficacious in preventing serious disease, as advertised. <br /><br />Take this information for what you will.Eric Reasonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05688830134012824642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-65559959489549824602013-03-14T00:52:51.121-04:002013-03-14T00:52:51.121-04:00By the way, there's a petition here to try and...By the way, there's a petition here to try and keep Reader alive, which I dutifully signed. But I'm worried the damage is done.<br /><br />https://www.change.org/petitions/google-keep-google-reader-running#shareEric Reasonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05688830134012824642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-5090066695435356432012-09-18T09:38:10.448-04:002012-09-18T09:38:10.448-04:00I would guess that your man in Cairo is the rule a...I would guess that your man in Cairo is the rule as of now. The real question is, can he change? Can he learn to embrace his inalienable rights?<br /><br />I wonder how we came to embrace them.Chrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03889681055577032812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-20269212165407117052012-01-27T18:58:35.648-05:002012-01-27T18:58:35.648-05:00I received this e-mail today from Congressman McCo...I received this e-mail today from Congressman McCotter:<br /><br />Dear Mr. Reasons:<br /><br /> <br /><br />Thank you for informing me of your opposition to H.R. 3261, the Stop Online Piracy Act and S. 968, the Preventing Real Online Threats to Economic Creativity and Theft of Intellectual Property (PROTECT IP) Act of 2011. Your thoughts on these important matters are most welcome and appreciated.<br /><br /> <br /><br />As a staunch supporter of preserving an open Internet, I agree with you.<br /><br /> <br /><br />As you know, Representative Lamar Smith (TX) introduced H.R. 3261 on October 26, 2011. If enacted, this legislation as introduced would authorize the Attorney General (AG) to seek a court order against any U.S. directed foreign Internet site that is committing or facilitating online piracy to require the owner, operator, or domain name registrant of that site to cease and desist further activities constituting intellectual property offenses under the federal criminal code, including the following: (1) criminal copyright infringement; (2) unauthorized fixation and trafficking of sound recording or videos of live musical performances; (3) the recording of exhibited motion pictures; or (4) trafficking in counterfeit labels, goods, or services. Presently, this legislation awaits further action in the House Committee on the Judiciary. In a related bill in the Senate, Senator Patrick Leahy (VT) introduced S. 968 on May 12, 2011. This legislation would authorize the AG and rights holders to bring actions against online infringers operating an Internet site or domain where the site is dedicated to infringing activities, but with remedies limited to eliminating the financial viability of the site, not blocking access. Presently, this legislation awaits action in the Senate Committee on the Judiciary.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Most importantly, while this overly-broad legislation is an attempt to protect the theft of intellectual property on the Internet, it is imperative we do so without infringing upon an individual's access to the Internet, and also by easing concerns over online censorship. Thus, I remain resolute in my opposition to H.R. 3261 in the House and S. 968 in the Senate.<br /><br /> <br /><br />Rest assured, your thoughts on these important issues will be well remembered during the 112th Congress. Again, thank you for contacting me, and for all you do for our community and our country. Should you have any further comments or questions on this or any other issue, please contact me at my office in Livonia, Milford, or Washington, D.C.<br /><br /> <br /><br />I work for you.<br /><br /> <br /><br /><br />Sincerely, <br /> <br />Thaddeus G. McCotter<br />Member of CongressEric Reasonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05688830134012824642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-14595005310824700752012-01-18T07:53:03.656-05:002012-01-18T07:53:03.656-05:00As Jeff Sand said...Well written. I hope you don&...As Jeff Sand said...Well written. I hope you don't mind but I sent your letter to my congressman and senator. Nobody has said it better.Michelle Branchhttp://www.facebook.com/mgbranchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-32840496850660709972011-11-17T17:35:42.317-05:002011-11-17T17:35:42.317-05:00Dangy Taggart couldn't have put it better. We...Dangy Taggart couldn't have put it better. Well written. Thank you!Jeff Sandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00803429620413445224noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-38343651636498777352011-10-23T20:40:38.003-04:002011-10-23T20:40:38.003-04:00On intrinsic motivation and how a better understan...On intrinsic motivation and how a better understanding of it will reshape our socioeconomics, see Dan Pink's talk at the RSA, here: <br />"RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us"<br />http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc<br /><br />You are right on the divide-by-zero errors in mainstream economics. I talked about that in "Post-Scarcity Princeton". <br /><br />The way mainstream economists get around that is assuming infinite demand. Then they can divide infinite productivity by infinite demand to balance things out.<br /><br />The problem is, as you have pointed out in another entry, people are starting to use their leisure time cheaply through the internet to help others fill their leisure time. See also Malsow's Hierarchy of Needs on the move to self-actualization. And see also "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" as an enviromental ethic. There is a law of diminishing returns, or even eventually negative returns, on more goods and services. <br /><br />And of course a concentration of wealth leads to monetary problems too with having consumer demand, and automation and energy replace a lot of human labor, reinforcing the concentration of wealth to owners of capital. But even if wealth was not being concentrated, demand would probably still not keep up with productivity improvements. See also a humorous short story called "The Midas Plague".<br /><br />Put that all together and you get the situation we are in. And it will only get worse until some form of radical change -- like a basic income, or a bigger transition to a gift economy, or better participatory government planning, and/or the wide spread of advanced 3D printing and household robots for subsistence production.Paul Fernhouthttp://www.pdfernhout.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-63591636888551508242011-10-23T20:05:11.388-04:002011-10-23T20:05:11.388-04:00I posted a related comment in response to an earli...I posted a related comment in response to an earlier blog post on your site, so I won't repeat it here. But essentially, there have always been at least four interwoven economies (subsistence, gift, exchange, and planned -- as well as theft when the social consensus breaks down), and the balance changes with cultural and technological changes.<br /><br />The most straightforward response to the current crisis is simply a "basic income", or essentially social security for all from birth as a right of citizenship and as compensation for the enclosure of the land and for things like legally created monopolies. This basic income can also replace obsolete compulsory public schooling as it provides time and money for life-long self-education, private schooling, and homeschooling. <br /><br />There are more options though to expand the subsistence, gift, and planned economies. For lots of details, see my site or this related knol I put together: http://knol.google.com/k/beyond-a-jobless-recoveryPaul Fernhouthttp://www.pdfernhout.netnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-11637172028615604722011-10-23T19:31:27.396-04:002011-10-23T19:31:27.396-04:00As I say at my site, there have always been four i...As I say at my site, there have always been four interwoven economies, and the balance of them is shaped by our society:<br /><br /> * A subsistence economy ("There's some lovely berries over here.");<br /> * A gift economy ("The meat from this deer is going to spoil; let's share it with the tribe.");<br /> * A planned economy ("Let's put the longhouse here.");<br /> * An exchange economy ("You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."); <br /><br />And as has been pointed out to me since, there probably always a fifth economy based around "theft" or "conquest".<br /><br />Paid human labor has less and less value due to several causes including due to robotics, AI, and other automation, due to better design, due to the accumulation of physical infrastructure, due to cheaper energy (which can often substitute for human labor), and/or due to the emergence of voluntary social networks.<br /><br />Mainstream economists try to get around this long term trend by assuming infinite demand, but that is just not in accord with human psychology or social dynamics. See Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs, or an emerging "Reduce, Reuse, Recycle" ethic, or see any of the world's major religions -- including humanism -- about moving beyond materialistic values.<br /><br />So, we can expect the balance between those four economies to change as our technology and society changes, perhaps with:<br /><br /> * A subsistence economy through 3D printing and local PV solar panels or other clean energy technologies (like cold fusion or something else);<br /> * A gift economy through the internet, like sharing digital files to use with our 3D printers;<br /> * A planned economy on a variety of scales, including through taxes, subsidies and regulation affecting market dynamics; and<br /> * An exchange economy marketplace softened by a basic income.<br /><br />The particular balance achieved may be unique to a region's culture and history.<br /><br />A YouTube video presentation of this idea can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vK-M_e0JoY<br /><br />Google also on "RSA Animate - Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us" for a great YouTube video on how creativity is actually dimished when intellectual work is done for gain.Paul Fernhouthttp://www.artificialscarcity.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-9418337383296559842011-08-18T04:51:11.030-04:002011-08-18T04:51:11.030-04:00I think it'll foster innovation. The intellect...I think it'll foster innovation. The intellectual property law can definitely be a huge factor in that industry.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.servcorp.com.my/" rel="nofollow">virtual office</a>Dalehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13520146361945467322noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-77117699493707943792011-08-07T03:41:41.320-04:002011-08-07T03:41:41.320-04:00Probably fewer jobs, if not jobless. "Jobs&q...Probably fewer jobs, if not jobless. "Jobs" are all about an economy in which giant hierarchal institutions -- employers -- act as gatekeepers regulating access to opportunities for production. When an exploding share of forms of production no longer requires high capital outlays -- the main justification for wage employment and large organizations -- production in those areas will be carried out to a much greater extent directly, rather than being mediated by jobs.Kevin Carsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07525803609000364993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-58262341516108697542011-08-06T09:52:27.580-04:002011-08-06T09:52:27.580-04:00Kevin -
I'm also concerned about the competi...Kevin - <br /><br />I'm also concerned about the competing goals of inflating our way out of debt and capturing the deflation in terms of cost-of-living benefits. <br /><br />It's impossible to do both, but how do we get a whole economy to deleverage itself without imploding?<br /><br />Simply, deflation isn't bad if you don't owe anybody money.Eric Reasonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05688830134012824642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-900704259800889302011-08-06T03:09:19.380-04:002011-08-06T03:09:19.380-04:00Great post, Eric. Thanks for the mention.
I thin...Great post, Eric. Thanks for the mention.<br /><br />I think if workers could capture the full benefit of increased efficiency, things would work out great. But that would require 1) eliminating all forms of artificial scarcity and the rents on them so that all increases in efficiency were passed along in the form of lower prices, and 2) a reduction in the workweek so that available remainign work was evenly distributed.Kevin Carsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07525803609000364993noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-68748038416759758922011-06-10T08:44:02.585-04:002011-06-10T08:44:02.585-04:00Nothing to add except, good post.Nothing to add except, good post.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-12357736621092143052011-04-17T12:38:02.932-04:002011-04-17T12:38:02.932-04:00Essentially nothing happens to the supply and dema...Essentially nothing happens to the supply and demand curve, it's just that the economy shifts from monetarism to a gift economy, or economy of attention. There will always be scarcity (most obviously scarcity of time) and I don't think that money is going away any time soon, but over the next few decades - assuming no major collapses, catastrophes or retrenchments befall humanity - monetarism is likely to become a less important factor in the economy.<br /><br />You can see an example of a post-scarcity economy in open source software. Atoms don't follow the same logic as bits, but downward mobility in automation will also mean that surplus value can be generated in a way which to some degree facilitates "wealth without money". This also has consequences for concentrations of political power, and power relationships in general, so I expect that advanced automation of a ubiquitous kind will be resisted by the status quo.Bob Mottramhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07508972554031337434noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-6027488556912178772011-03-28T18:31:59.366-04:002011-03-28T18:31:59.366-04:00Mojo - Thanks for visiting, and for letting me kno...Mojo - Thanks for visiting, and for letting me know who I owe the milk and cookies to!Eric Reasonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05688830134012824642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-68569372983197500082011-03-28T17:57:51.939-04:002011-03-28T17:57:51.939-04:00Interesting. Found you via Smitty.
If you want to...Interesting. Found you via Smitty.<br /><br />If you want to know how well a government "regulated" network would work, just look at Social Security.<br /><br />"Give them a kill switch? What're you, effin' crazy? They can barely understand the web!"mojonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-16319266549891518242011-03-13T16:39:02.291-04:002011-03-13T16:39:02.291-04:00Thanks Ruti! Glad you found the post useful.Thanks Ruti! Glad you found the post useful.Eric Reasonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05688830134012824642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-87545411591436627682011-03-13T16:33:33.142-04:002011-03-13T16:33:33.142-04:009 months later, and this post is still relevant! t...9 months later, and this post is still relevant! thanks, its thought provoking. RutiAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-19215124241746381742011-02-21T09:14:36.976-05:002011-02-21T09:14:36.976-05:00Moron-WV, indeed. My daughter has the same photo o...Moron-WV, indeed. My daughter has the same photo on her laptop but the caption reads, "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy..." Help us, Obi-Wan. You're our only hope.unmitigated mehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13901264130484454602noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-91701626653665761452010-12-18T14:59:43.998-05:002010-12-18T14:59:43.998-05:00Thanks for the plug, Eric. Your statements of the...Thanks for the plug, Eric. Your statements of the basic implications of radical deflation are the best I've read.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-78902048872851015152010-09-18T00:28:46.649-04:002010-09-18T00:28:46.649-04:00Great pictures and post - I'll have to check o...Great pictures and post - I'll have to check out Taldeschi's next time I venture to the wine country. I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to CA and shared some of your experiences with us!Thyme2Behttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18288837586994890849noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-28165739985091018482010-09-04T13:13:31.166-04:002010-09-04T13:13:31.166-04:00Jose-
Thanks for your comments!
In response, wha...Jose-<br /><br />Thanks for your comments!<br /><br />In response, what you call “exchange value”, I call “capital”, then then we’re pretty much saying the same thing. I think Marx has a lot to bring to the table in understanding this third space of creating social value without creating capital, but I think it’s mostly by accident.<br /><br />Lastly, I feel that the massive disruption of the music industry has indeed cost millions of dollars (not that it’s unwelcome). Their expectation of revenue may be absurd looking towards the future, as artists and fans learn that they don’t need an intermediary; but that doesn’t mean that once upon a time they didn’t add real value, and value that could be captured by capital.Eric Reasonshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05688830134012824642noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-68224905013197076172010-09-03T18:38:04.327-04:002010-09-03T18:38:04.327-04:00“You stumbled upon the difference between use valu...“You stumbled upon the difference between use value and exchange value. The use value of music is constant. What was reduced recently was the ability of the music industry to restrict access and therefore continue and increase the extraction of *exchange* value. You can observe the same with Free/Libre Software that exploded use value but makes it very difficult to enclose and make scarce. That is why only a fraction is transformed into exchange value (and then fixed capital). Marx explained it all very well, look it up.<br /><br />Also, it’s not that “a massive disruption of the music industry that has cost billions of dollars”, but that the disruption *prevented them* from extracting millions of dollars. Their expectation of revenue is not cost, no matter how many times they try to confuse and mystify the issue.”Josehttp://blog.p2pfoundation.net/eric-reasons-value-is-not-capital/2010/09/01#comment-436970noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2001146793389907383.post-45480088052896298312010-09-02T04:53:44.713-04:002010-09-02T04:53:44.713-04:00Who was singing with INXS?Who was singing with INXS?Rosshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08827731848618933239noreply@blogger.com