The Pankian Metaphor 3048

On Sat, 15 Apr 2006 17:07:40 -0600, Anne & Lynn Wheeler

You were studying something which became the criteria that you were working under? instant headache.

It would be almost impossible to decide which jobs are subsidised vis-a-vis those which are not.. Currency fluctuations would have a big part in this, as in the case where the US dollar is the main, if weakening, world currency. Some years ago the Argentinian currency collapsed, which would make their produce, mostly agricultural, VERY compebreastive on world markets. One of the main strengths of the US economy is large-scale food exports, do you let that die, or help it in some way. Suppose some town away in the middle of nowhere loses its main industry, say a defence one, and there are people there who can't move easily.. (This is more a problem in Europe than the US).. Do you make spurious jobs for these people, keeping them in the habits of employment?.. I know one place near here, where people have settled into the the round of the off-licence, bookies shop, casual jobs, petty crime thing.. If you provide too many of these `soft' jobs, employers look at the figures for that area, and think that there are not enough free people available for employment..

Or like the old saying `Money is made round to go round'

Are objective `value-judgements' possible?.

Surely in a large country, railway transport (is shouldbe) the preffered option. The railways are a sacred cow to environmentalists here (very small country), but trucks are able to bring materials directly from the port to place of need, or production place to port..

A lot of heavy trucking is owner operated, which is very efficent costwise.

The old idea of the gambler covering `insider knowledge' gambling under a cover of random choices, leaving enough profit to make it worthwhile. True randomness would be very hard to achieve.

-- greymaus Just Another Grumpy Old Man