Posts by Sacha
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to linger,
only out for themselves
noice #tofo
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to recordari,
obviscous
My, you really are taking the channelling-Ian thing seriously :)
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Hard News: The First Draft, in reply to Carol Stewart,
Isn't life a bit short?
Ooh, ooh. this from Te Onion (h/t @farmgeek):
During an unexpected moment of clarity Tuesday, open-minded man Blake Richman was suddenly struck by the grim realization that he's squandered a significant portion of his life listening to everyone's bullshit, the 38-year-old told reporters.
A visibly stunned and solemn Richman, who until this point regarded his willingness to hear out the opinions of others as a worthwhile quality, estimated that he's wasted nearly three and a half years of his existence being open to people's half-formed thoughts, asinine suggestions, and pointless, dumbfuck stories.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Hilary Stace,
Wasn't one of those convicted in the last few days a Pike River contractor
Is that one of the people arrested for interfering with emergency operations on that first day? How sad.
not looting, but something else)
I was only talking about looting - and yes, I can imagine the poorer suburbs having more reason to go there. But I'd rather not assume those two guys caught stealing three generators are misunderstood heroes of the people, thanks. I'm aware of organised grassroots resource networks active in some suburbs but I doubt they'd appreciate being tarred with that brush.
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to Russell Brown,
you'd like the reality to change so that your theory works
pretty good summary
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to Lew Stoddart,
Eric's response, in which he makes his case with considerably more nuance.
Not really - it still centres around an ignorant conflation of need with ability to pay - that everyone who needs something is magically able to pay whatever price the market dictates. A fantasy level playing field. Eric does, kind of, address the poor (I just doubt he has ever met many of them).
it's still very plausible that a temporary doubling of petrol prices would have reduced queuing and ensured that adequate supplies were available for folks who really needed them.
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This isn't a "screw the poor" thing. Is a poor person worse off having to spend $40 than $20 to get enough gas to get through a two day period, or worse off having to spend a whole lot of time in a queue for potentially no petrol at all? Recall that poor households are more likely to be single parent. Who's looking after the kids while Mom's queuing for petrol?
But overall it's just because we all don't get it.
temporary price hikes that would likely be misunderstood and resented by customers
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public irrationality about the working of the price mechanism
Thank goodness there are wise and rational economists to put us straight, eh.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
I will not, however, be harsh on this city Christchurch and all it's people right now.
Condemning looters is not being harsh to the rest of Christchurch's citizens. If anything, it's supporting them.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
If you really needed power and you didn't care what impact it had on others you might steal one generator. But three?
People will probably judge the character of those fine upstanding citizens by the raised middle finger they so generously offered the court. So many others in Christchurch who deserve our sympathy more than those clowns.
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Hard News: What Now?, in reply to Sofie Bribiesca,
I just hope one of these "looters" stands up in court and explains to the Judge that they were actually desperate.
Taking food to feed a family is one thing. But I doubt those two skinheads will have much luck persuading anyone they 'needed' three generators that were powering phonecalls in the immediate aftermath. Rather lucky to have been denied bail, probably.
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OnPoint: On Price Gouging, in reply to Russell Brown,
a Hayekian fantasy plane