A Quick Note on Economics

If I was centrally planning an economy, it simply wouldn't have occurred to me to figure out how to make a perfectly good microwave oven for $59.95 CAD. And that's why capitalism isn't so bad.

A Quick Note on Socialism

kjrose linked to an article about "soft paternalism", which is basically a way of subtly adjusting "default behaviours" and stating messages in just the right way so that people tend to do sensible things instead of wrong things. It's very neat, very successful, and a bit scary. And I know I've done it too. Why force people to do things when you can help them do things? Hmm.

Moral quandary: well, the cat's out of the bag. If you don't do it, someone else will.

A Quick Note on Work

Not only do we have rental plants here, but it seems we have rental paintings too. So when you get tired of them, you just send them back and someone replaces them for no extra charge! Oh, modern world, where have you been all my life?

A Quick Note on Syndication

Someone pointed out to me that there is a Livejournal syndication of my diary that people can post comments to. There are two problems with this: first, I don't see them, because I don't use Livejournal. And second, even if I saw them, I can't reply to them, because anonymous comments are disabled on that syndication and I don't have a Livejournal account. So you'll have to email me if you want me to see your thoughts. Sorry.