Categories
Economics

China and greed (repost)

On a recent post in a photo forum I haunt regularly, someone was bemoaning the fact that the Chinese government is so awful. I would have agreed with that, but he went on to say that he wished that “someone with some clout” would come and prevent companies (in this case Nikon) from doing business in China. He lamented that “greedy consumers and businesses” were making it tough on the Chinese. The sad thing is that this is a frequently used tactic to try to stop or hinder trade with China.

I asked the obvious question, would you rather live in China now or 20 years ago before those greedy corporations came in. There is no doubt when you would want to live there (if you had to), it would be now. Things were much much worse back then, even if there was less “greed”. People get very hung up on intentions and not enough on results. For the moment, I will assume that consumers really are greedy and that businesses are also at least as greedy and full of avarice. Would the Chinese have it any other way? Is there another system that would bring so many jobs to so many people year after year? China has made undeniable progress over the past 20 years, dramatically so over the last 10.

I see wanting the lowest price possible for a good as morally neutral. Instead of seeing the pursuit of profit as being greedy like so many others, I see it as a genuine positive activity. Here’s the thing, someone could be the biggest greedy bastard in the world, but the greedier they got, the more people they would be *forced* to support.

Unless they put the money under a mattress (which they wouldn’t since they have a voracious appetite for money) they would either have to spend the money or invest it. Spending has an obvious link with jobs created. If he wants his land landscaped, hair cut, pool cleaned, house built, or a new TV, someone has to be paid to do that.

Investment slips most people’s minds, but it is where most of the big money goes. Direct investment is the most direct way of creating jobs. If they see a business opportunity, either starting a new one or expanding an existing one, investment leads to new jobs. If they instead invest in financial assets, it is a little more vague, but just as effective. All interest earned is a fraction of the return on whatever that money was invested in (with the exception of government debt). Money into hedge funds, stocks, commodities, mortgages, etc. filters back to either individuals (who then face the same decisions about what to do with their money) or to direct investment into companies, which creates more jobs…

China (and India) shows what can be done if you simply allow people to pursue profits. Millions of people are lifted out of poverty while providing goods and services that people want. The jobs created by direct investment lead to other jobs. The Nikon factory worker needs to eat, get their hair cut, get to work, and have a place to live. In addition, they buy other products that employ the people that make those. Money begets more money and more wealth.

China’s government surely needs to change. They have an awful track record of civil rights abuses among other things. But at least the government is allowing its people to escape the grind of poverty. Compare China with Cuba, or any of a host of African nations. China’s people are on the upswing while other countries are falling or have already bottomed out (Zimbabwe, Cuba). Give credit where credit is due, it may not be a great government, but it is doing the right thing in one very important way.

Isaac

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Yemen

Well, I tried

I went back to the art galleries with money in my pocket, ready to buy something as a reminder of my trip. I ran into what I call the music store clench. It used to be that I would think of some music I would like to buy, would wander over to Tower Records (RIP) and not be able to buy a thing. I would pick up the cds I wanted and I just couldn’t check out with them. I have no similar problem when buying over the internet, Amazon, Amazon used, cd club, or Ebay. I’m sure it’s all about the price, Tower certainly didn’t win any price comparisons… Anyway, I went back to the galleries, saw the same things that excited me last time, but I couldn’t take my money out and buy anything. I guess it’s for the best. I’ll wander over there from time to time and see if there’s something that I can’t live without. I’ll also ask around and see if there are any other galleries around.

Isaac

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odds and ends

Do I announce how "green" I am?

So my web host (dreamhost) has announced that it has gone green. They are buying carbon offsets to counteract everything they do, including driving to work. There are little icons I can put on my site to announce this. Since I don’t really care one way or the other, should I put it on my site? My reasoning is this, I might not care, but it may mean something to a lot of other people. So what do you think?

Isaac

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Economics

Being controlled by corporations (repost)

I posted this almost a year ago on my old blog, but recent conversations have made think it is relevent again. Plus, with the new blog, every post is searchable by Google and the other search engines, so here it is again…

This idea of being controlled by corporations has come up several times in recent online conversations. It’s usually in the context of the government regulating something to protect us from the evil corporations. This puzzles and worries me on several different levels. What strikes me the most is this idea that we are slaves to various companies, that we have no choice in certain things and we are therefore controlled by these companies. Following that line of logic, we are in need of a protector, and most people want the government to play that role. With just a little thought you can see how backwards this really is.

Companies depend on us buying their products and services to survive. It is in their best interest to provide us with what we want. We are the ones that control of the corporations! This is easily shown by the fact that companies regularly go out of business. As long as there is competition between companies for our dollars, we are the ones in control. We always have options, we can buy from a company, not buy from them, buy from their competition, etc. If we do not like their price, their business practices, owners, or whatever, we can choose to do something else.

When we involve the government, our range of choices always decreases. Government ownership being the worst case scenario. Lets use a ridiculous example to make a point. Let’s say that the local power plant decides to start burning babies to provide power. There are people that applaud this decision since babies are messy and loud. Plus, they burn much cleaner than the traditional fossil fuels. You are outraged of course, but what to do, you need power! Well, you have options. You can use some sort of alternative energy source, maybe buy your own generator or install solar panels. In the worst case scenario, you could move somewhere else and use some other power source. The key is that you do not have to use their power and you no longer support what you don’t like. Now imagine that the government owns the power plant or at least subsidizes it as an alternative energy source. You could choose not to use the power, but you’d still be paying for it. If you decided to make a stand and not pay for it (as you should), you would be thrown in jail, or at least fined. Sounds silly, right? Well, just substitute your least favorite war, educational policy, political junket, or least favorite bit of bureaucratic red tape to see how relevant it really is. When the government is involved, you have to pay no matter what you think of the policies. That’s quite a bit more control than any business could ever have over you.


OK sure, but the government doesn’t own most things, and besides the poor need some sort of protection. They don’t have the same kind of options that you and I have. It’s true that the US government doesn’t own most things (thank God!) but that’s not the case in many countries. The government here may not own as much, but they certainly regulate quite a bit. Regulations have a similar consequence, they cause us to have fewer options. How? By forcing expenses on companies, it raises the cost of entry and operation. This prevents some companies from starting and can cause others to close. By stifling competition, we have fewer choices and pay higher prices. This gets us back to the protection of the poor. The poor wouldn’t need protection if they had adequate choices. In fact, they may choose an option that you wouldn’t because it would save them some money. I’d like to think that everyone, regardless of income bracket, would choose the nuclear power plant over the baby burning one. But not everyone would choose the nuclear plant over a coal burning one. Some would prefer the lower operating expenses of coal, some people just don’t trust nuclear power. Some people wouldn’t choose either, they’d rather pay the extra money and use wind or solar power. The key is that the more choices companies can offer us, the better off we are. They have no control over us, we control them. The government is the one you have to watch out for, it can either limit your choices or control you directly by threat of incarceration (or worse).


The same principles apply to ANY product or service that you can think of. If you let businesses pursue profits, you will have the most extensive range of options, including the lowest possible price. Regulations passed, no matter how well intentioned, will always interfere with someone’s choices. This limits them to them paying more and/or eliminating a service that they would rather have. Granted, environmental, educational, and national defense issues are complicated, but the fact remains that the government is the only one that can “control” us, the corporations of the world can only ask us for our money.

Isaac

Categories
odds and ends

The Ledoux and IC factor…

I love it, a couple of days after I mention a woman I went to IC with, they both find my blog. A while back I mentioned Daryl Lynn, a bass player in a band called flashlight and she found my blog a couple of days later. I mentioned Michelle Ledeoux and it looks she found me as well based on the log of my blog. Michelle you out there? I’m just impressed that I spelled her name right, LOL.

Isaac

Categories
Religion

My take on Islam so far

I’m disappointed. That’s the short version. I have been studying religions from my college days, I actually got a minor in religion and philosophy. Every religion I studied I was able to take away something positive and interesting. In some cases, they have had a lasting impact on me. Different forms of Buddhism (especially Zen), various sects of Hinduism, Judaism, and certainly all of the different versions of Christianity have left their mark. Islam, or at least the kind practiced here has left me cold. It is a very cut and dried affair. A cynic might say that it is a simple religion for simple people. I of course would never say such a thing:-).

I will admit to being drawn to the more mystical, experiential forms of religion and repelled by rules based systems. The Islam practiced here is certainly rules based. You pray 5 times a day not to be closer to God, to understand, or even to experience anything. You do it because that is what you are told to do. The entire religion seems to be like that. Questions are not encouraged, I really think that many people do not consider the mystery of God, creation, or why they are supposed to do things any of their business. I might change my outlook a bit if I came into contact with some Sufis, they are the one branch that does emphasize things that I’m interested in.

Oddly enough, as disappointed as I am in the religion, I have mostly good things to say about the people that follow it. I am well acquainted with Christian hypocrisy, many people never get past it and label the entire Christian experience as hypocritical. Many Christians could learn a thing or two from the people here. God is a constant part of their thinking. The standard response to the question “How are you?” is “God be praised.” Seriously, that is what everyone says, especially if they are going through bad times. When someone says that they hope to do something, or that they will do something in the future, it is always, always followed by the phrase, “Inshalla” which translates into “God willing.” The people here also abide by their rules pretty well. There are exceptions of course, but I do not fear that people are lying to me, or are trying to take advantage of me most of the time. When I finish eating my lunch (with my hands inevitably), I don’t hesitate to leave my case with my laptop on the table while I go wash my hands.

Having said that, do not cross these people. Revenge is a time honored tradition among Arabs and it is condoned by Islam in most circumstances. So yes, Islam promotes a pretty peaceful living condition, but in part that is due to the threat of revenge being taken out on you and your family. As a Christian, that’s a pretty foreign concept. I am going to hold off discussing women in Islam until I do a little more research, but my initial feelings are not good ones in that regard. And of course there are the punishments that most followers of Islam believe in. I always find it odd that someone that believes in God thinks that they need to exact justice right now. Can’t God do it better and more accurately? Once again I guess my Christian bias is showing…

So to summarize, the religion gets a big thumbs down, but the effects are (mostly) ok. I think being so close to Saudi is coloring the Islam I see practiced here, I don’t want to make a judgement based on looking at one sect. Judging Christianity by looking at the Jehovah Witnesses or Christian Scientists would certainly be a mistake. I don’t want to make the same mistake here.

Isaac

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Arabic

I know that Arabic is complicated, but really….

My teacher was telling me today that it isn’t my imagination, Arabic really is complicated. I met a guy on the bus who explained to me how easy it was for them to learn English. English grammar does seem like a piece of cake now. The trick with English is the vocabulary and the spelling. I do believe that English has, by far, the largest vocabulary of any language out there. Of course since we borrow from so many languages (A quote from our president, “The French have no word for entrepreneur.”) the spelling is all over the place.

Anyway, Abdul Summit (my teacher) tells me that at the local university you can take two years of classes on prepositions in Arabic, several more on verbs, etc. People spend their entire lives researching and innovating in the language itself. That’s pretty impressive…

One thing that I noticed today is how Arabic treats “to be”. In the present tense, simply being doesn’t require a verb at all. So “I am hungry” becomes “I hungry” in Arabic. The interesting thing is that because of the way words are derived from verbs, there are actually verbs for being surprised, hungry, sad, etc. The adjectives are derived from the verbs, along with the nouns. It can make translation a bit tricky, it certainly makes thinking about the sentences a workout… So here’s my understanding so far… There is a verb for “being happy”, from this we can derive the adjective “happy” and the nouns for the subject and object of the verb. The next form of the verb (which is pronounced slightly differently and also has slight conjugation differences) translates into making someone happy. From this we can derive the adjective for making someone happy, along with the subject (who is making someone happy) and the object (the person being made happy). Yes, there are words for all of these things. There are also different forms that I have not learned the meaning of yet. It’s an interesting system, but an expansive one. I’m starting to be able to recognize what part of speech words are even if I don’t know their definition, that’s handy. Participles and what we would consider gerunds are still giving me trouble. That leads to other problems, if I can’t tell the word is a noun, I can’t put definite articles (the ubiquitous AL-everything) on properly in strings of nouns and adjectives describing each other.

I picked up an Arabic newspaper today and tried reading an article. I’m making progress because unlike the last time, I was able to make some sense out if it. My estimate is that I was “getting” about 30% of the article. My teacher insists that that’s pretty good. It took me almost 5 minutes to read about 10 lines, so it’ll be awhile before I can just pick up a newspaper and start reading. I’m inching forward slowly….

Isaac

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Yemen

Crap!

I forgot that today is wednesday… It’s easy to do when you aren’t working. This means that I’ve missed my window for picking up my passport at the Chinese embassy this week. I’ll have to get it on sunday. Now the trick is to remember to do this on sunday…

I went bowling with Abdul Summit last night. He’s a really competitive person and it bugs him to lose. Lucky for him, I couldn’t do much right last night. I did beat him in bowling once, scoring a decent (for me) 129. Of course the next game he nearly doubled my score. Even in pool I was terrible. I’m a much better player than he is, but we split 4 games. He told me that he lay awake half the night thinking of his bowling shortcomings. I guess I’m lucky that I’ve never taken the game too seriously.

Isaac

Categories
Rants

Government vs. Private sector

A friend recently mentioned on his blog that the Don Imus affair showed the only way that he trusts the private sector. He finished his post by saying that he likes his government large and well paid. I tried to point out all of the benefits of our private sector, they provide damn near everything for us. They do it well and the products and services are always evolving to suit us. We get what we want when we want it.

I really, really don’t understand wanting a big government. All of the evidence points to the fact that that the larger your government is (as a percentage of GDP), the worse your economy performs. The Soviet block countries, Cuba, and the current North Korea are the extreme examples. I don’t think we have to worry about becoming like North Korea, but take a look at some of our friends in Europe. France has an enormous government and “protects” workers from the private sector. The result? Massive unemployment and an unsupportable welfare state. They are facing a demographic collapse due in no small part to their tax/government systems in my opinion.

But surely we need the government to protect us from private companies. Without all of their regulations we’d be at the companies mercy, right? I blogged a little while ago about how we are the ones that run companies, I will repost that. What I want to concentrate on here is the relative risks we face with corporate malfeasance as opposed to government threats. As a rebuttal to my comment on his post, someone sent me a link about a daycare facility closing without any notice. Parents had to find daycare the next day. Now that is certainly a royal pain, and pretty inconsiderate, but it was hardly an enormous problem. You want an enormous problem? How about the unfunded liabilities of our social security system or the enormous debt that our government has racked up. They have saddled our great grandchildren with paying for our foolish economic ways. Here’s the thing, you can come up with the absolute worst case scenario for bad behavior in the corporate world, and it will not hold a candle to what governments have actually done. Think of the nastiest, conniving businessman who specializes in evicting widows and orphans as his business. He makes 6 year olds work 15 hours a day and makes them eat nuclear waste at gunpoint. Ok, that’s pretty bad, but a little ridiculous. He still doesn’t compare to say, Stalin. Hell, he doesn’t even compare to Mugabe or Huessain. What about Milken, Schilling, or any other white collar criminal? Once again, they can’t compete badness-wise with the likes of Sen. Mcarthy, J. Edgar Hoover, or maybe even Cheney. The corporate scandals that have cost people millions upon millions of dollars do not come close to the business as usual buddy buddy dealings in the the government. Think of the worst corporate scandal you can think of. How much did that cost people? Did you know that the agricultural subsidies in the US have cost the taxpayers over 1.2 TRILLION dollars over the past 10 years? That doesn’t even include the higher prices we had to pay for the goods because of the protection offered to Archer Danials Midland and others by our government. This isn’t even a big deal, hardly anyone ever hears about it.

Here’s my point. Yes, there are terrible people out there. Low lifes and morally challenged people that will do anything for a dollar. Yes, we should be on the lookout for them. The good news is that the effects of their bad behavior are fairly limited in the private sector. The fact that these people exist is the reason that we have to be so careful about the government. The government is made up of people, just like the private sector. When morally corrupt, power hungry, profit seeking people get into the government, the stakes are much, much higher. The private sector, by its very nature, limits the impact of any one company or person. One person in the government can have enormous impacts on many different things in our life, now think of an entire party and what they can “accomplish.” Most of the time, the problems in the government aren’t obvious, the problems don’t appear until later and the costs are often hidden. Sometimes, the person doing it doesn’t even realize what they re doing is so bad (see our outstanding debt as an example). Regulations are often times (but not always) made for the supposed benefit of the tax payers, but due to the fact that politicians are, well, politicians, we don’t get the results that they were looking for. Unintended consequences of regulations have cost us plenty. This is also my prime motivation for keeping the government out of the private sector as much as possible. The Private sector is where everything happens. It is what produces all of the innovations, it is what has lengthened our life-span and made our life much more comfortable. Places that rely on the government to do this fail miserably. We should learn from both our past successes and other countries’ problems (Germany, France, Yemen, etc.). People pursuing a better life are what moves us forwards, not the government.

Isaac

Categories
Arabic

Let me try that again…

The last post was about pronunciation problems. Thinking just a little, I realized that English is filled with words like that too. Traitor/trader, cousin/cuisine, etc. I guess I just have to buckle down and learn those things. I still think that the verbs are a little different case though. Take the verb driss, it means studied. If you put more stress on the “R” sound (making it daRiss), it becomes taught. Literally, it means to make someone study. Like I said, it’s going to take some getting used to.

Isaac