A construction guy uses X for a market survey. He was surprised when another contractor claimed the biggest regret many have is taking on a large home. A bunch more commentors piled on to confirm that big is no longer a draw and for some a detriment.
Time changes all things. What was popular will run its course. It’s not always a new technology that gives entrepreneurs a new angle. Changing views are in continuous motion and desire constant attention.
I found myself at the grocery store almost daily in the flurry of preparations leading up to Christmas. I was buzzing by the produce section when the package of pearl onions stood out from its spot in the case. Despite the pressures of the moment, my attention was lifted back to another time.
My grandmother adored pearl onions. She wouldn’t pay the grocery store price, so she cultivated her own in a shallow plot beside their country home. The dirt was dry and loose in the warm days leading up to the fall. The onions, resting just below the surface, dislodged easily to the pull of a hand. Their skins were already drying at the edges as my grandmother arranged them across a screen in the garage to dry some more.
The anticipation of her harvest was palpable. She wasn’t a fancy cook but had an acceptable rotating menu. She cooked a roast in a Dutch oven. It stewed for hours, surrounded by root vegetables. The pearl onions were served as a side dish in a creamy white sauce. It was a marriage of meat and potatoes and a refined companion.
I speculate that tradition and your family largely influence what you eat. I’m not talking about the finer distinctions, whether a dinner roll accompanies a spaghetti dinner or the fat content of the yogurt you have for breakfast. A broader perspective includes people who rarely have a home-cooked meal versus those who eat around a table at least five nights a week. And then again, those who take the time to grow their special delicacies and serve them at their table.
If you google ‘health determinants, ‘ a bunch of stuff scrolls out in the feed, but none of it is exactly the same. For example, the World Health Organization‘s (WHO) site reports:
Determinants of Health
Many factors combine together to affect the health of individuals and communities. Whether people are healthy or not, is determined by their circumstances and environment. To a large extent, factors such as where we live, the state of our environment, genetics, our income and education level, and our relationships with friends and family all have considerable impacts on health, whereas the more commonly considered factors such as access and use of health care services often have less of an impact.
The emphasis is on a person’s situation in life more than on their genetic make-up or even access to health care services.
The US Center for Disease Control (CDC) offers a helpful graphic to describe their social determinants.
If you look at the hexagon you might note that the categories remind one of public goods. These goods are provided at large as they are thought to generate a universal effect that benefits everyone. If people are more educated, they will understand how to stay home with a virus so as not to pass it along to others. The availability of health care and clinics provide ease of treatment. The built environment includes transportation routes for ambulances and fire trucks to speed up a person in need. People fare better in safe communities enhanced through public provisions police services.
These categories line up nicely with the categories at Home Economics. Because the social determinants of health are also the determinants of a stable and vibrant neighborhood.
What isn’t provided at either of the sites are details. When one drills down to the street level, what can one measure that represents safety? Is it the number of pedestrian fatalities? Homicides? Or carjackings? Which number best represents safety?
Numbers meant to quantify school performance are subject to manipulation. Is the highest performer in a medium school really better off if they become a slightly above-average performer at a high-performing school? In the first instance, the student may evolve into a leader, one who expects more from themselves. Whereas in the second scenario they shrug off the duty to perform as there are so many better students in the lead. Yet competitive parents are expected to seek out the ‘top’ schools for their child- folklore says they are the best predictors of educational success.
Another factor that seems to be omitted is the level of dedication an individual, family, or community has to contribute to health issues. It’s one thing to live near a dentist, but if you never take off work to make sure your kids get in for a check-up, it does little good. Do the kids get on the school bus so they don’t trundle in late and disrupt the class? Does a neighbor ensure the octogenarian across the street gets in for their monthly treatments? How much work is going into these public health projects?
Neighborhoods are a rich source of social determinants. Combine that with a bit of information about volunteerism and who knows where that could lead us?
This book appeared in my stocking yesterday, and after rounding the halfway mark on the page number count, I appreciate the offering.
Introducing the gift receiver to an author they’ve never read opens the door to a world they might not have entered otherwise. My preferred mystery novel is the perfect mix: a bit scientific, a little unpredictable, and off-beat enough to be intriguing without overdoing the gore. Charles Donlea pens just such a combination.
A book is the kind of gift that adapts to its surroundings—it can be enjoyed in the quiet solitude of an armchair, glowing under a reading lamp, or in brief pockets of calm amid the holiday bustle. The dishes can sit. The requests quipped out from the kids can be left unheard. For a handful of pages, the story surrounds your thoughts.
Such a gift is light in its demands but rich in its rewards. It requires little investment but shows a wealth of thoughtfulness by the giver. A novel has the unique power to distract and delight, allowing the recipient to step away from the chatter and clatter of festive gatherings and into a story that captivates their imagination. It also has the lasting joy of discovering a new favorite author or style. In this way, a novel becomes more than a gift—it’s a gateway to connection, inspiration, and the timeless magic of storytelling.
Stocking stuffers are highly leverable. Don’t miss the opportunity to bring someone at your holiday festivities a little jubilation at this merry time of year.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse; The stockings were hung by the chimney with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there; The children were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads; And mamma in her ’kerchief, and I in my cap, Had just settled our brains for a long winter’s nap, When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter, I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter. Away to the window I flew like a flash, Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow Gave the lustre of mid-day to objects below, When, what to my wondering eyes should appear, But a miniature sleigh, and eight tiny reindeer, With a little old driver, so lively and quick, I knew in a moment it must be St. Nick. More rapid than eagles his coursers they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; “Now, Dasher! now, Dancer! now, Prancer and Vixen! On, Comet! on, Cupid! on, Donder and Blitzen! To the top of the porch! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!” As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly, When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky; So up to the house-top the coursers they flew, With the sleigh full of Toys, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard on the roof The prancing and pawing of each little hoof. As I drew in my head, and was turning around, Down the chimney St. Nicholas came with a bound. He was dressed all in fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes were all tarnished with ashes and soot; A bundle of Toys he had flung on his back, And he looked like a pedler just opening his pack. His eyes—how they twinkled! his dimples how merry! His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry! His droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow And the beard of his chin was as white as the snow; The stump of a pipe he held tight in his teeth, And the smoke it encircled his head like a wreath; He had a broad face and a little round belly, That shook when he laughed, like a bowlful of jelly. He was chubby and plump, a right jolly old elf, And I laughed when I saw him, in spite of myself; A wink of his eye and a twist of his head, Soon gave me to know I had nothing to dread; He spoke not a word, but went straight to his work, And filled all the stockings; then turned with a jerk, And laying his finger aside of his nose, And giving a nod, up the chimney he rose; He sprang to his sleigh, to his team gave a whistle, And away they all flew like the down of a thistle, But I heard him exclaim, ere he drove out of sight, “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good-night.”
(of an object) fixed firmly and deeply in a surrounding mass; implanted: “a gold ring with nine embedded stones”
I’ve never followed the use of this word as a descriptor of how norms and values influence economic activity. So I asked Chat. How is it that Karl Polanyi, who wrote The Great Transformation, talks of actors navigating a dynamic system where the act of their own free will and yet somehow is fixed firmly and deeply, i.e., embedded, in pre-set cultural norms? Here’s Chat’s response.
You raise a compelling point about the term “embedded” potentially being seen as static or limiting. However, in Karl Polanyi’s usage, the term “embedded” does not imply a rigid or unchanging system. Rather, it signifies that economic activity is integrally tied to social, cultural, and political frameworks. Within this embedded system, change and enhancement by participants are entirely consistent with the concept.
Why “Embedded” Is Appropriate in Polanyi’s Framework:
Embeddedness Is About Integration, Not Inflexibility:
Polanyi uses “embedded” to describe how economies are integrated into social and cultural systems, rather than existing as separate, autonomous spheres (as in the market economy).
Embeddedness highlights that norms, values, and institutions guide economic behavior, but it does not preclude change or evolution. It acknowledges that human agency and interaction shape these systems over time.
Dynamic Nature of Embedded Systems:
An embedded system evolves as participants interact with and reinterpret the norms and institutions that structure their actions. These systems are adaptive and responsive to changing circumstances, such as shifts in resources, relationships, or external pressures.
For example, reciprocity in a small community might evolve to accommodate new technologies or trade relationships, but it remains embedded because it is still governed by the community’s social values.
The Contrast with Disembedded Economies:
Polanyi contrasts embedded economies with disembedded ones, where economic activity becomes “autonomous,” governed solely by market principles. In disembedded systems, human relationships are subordinated to market imperatives, creating a more rigid and dehumanized structure.
Embeddedness, by contrast, ensures that economic systems remain rooted in human relationships, which are inherently flexible and participatory.
Room for Agency and Innovation:
Embeddedness does not eliminate agency or pre-set participants to fixed standards. Instead, it provides a context within which people act, negotiate, and innovate. Participants are active agents in shaping the system, but their actions are always informed by their embedded relationships and cultural understandings.
A Possible Refinement: “Interwoven” or “Integrated”?
For clarity, terms like “interwoven” or “integrated” might better capture the dynamic, evolving nature of the systems Polanyi describes. These terms emphasize the mutual influence between individuals and institutions, as well as the ongoing negotiation and adaptation of norms.
Conclusion:
The term “embedded” in Polanyi’s framework is appropriate because it emphasizes the interdependence of economic, social, and cultural systems. However, it is crucial to understand that embedded systems are not static. They are enhanced and reshaped by participants, reflecting a dynamic and evolving process rather than a pre-set, unchanging standard. If the term “embedded” feels too rigid, alternatives like “interwoven” or “integrated” can convey the same idea with more emphasis on fluidity.
I still say embedded is misleading. Economic activity doesn’t sit in a nest of norms and rules. It participates in making norms and rules along the way. In the process, economic agents are continuously confronted with the choice of Exit, Voice, and Loyalty.
How about you? Does economic activity sit atop a mangle of social requirements calling out orders? Or are social needs slid in side-by-side with personal gains?
It’s been a great year at Home Economics in 2024- thank you, readers! The views and visits were double that of any prior year.
By a mile, the most-read post was How Many Homes in a Neighborhood? This is beneficial because neighborhoods will provide the backdrop for more thoughts on volunteer and wage labor combinations and the outcomes that ensue.
Looking at large data sets can lose a lot of nuance. Not all countries show step-change movement between housing starts and price—take Spain as an example. The US numbers show that prices stayed low for years after the great recession, even after building starts started to rebound.
Local numbers, in conjunction with local conditions, are far more revealing in real estate.
Say one wanted to track how much labor was available in a neighborhood. There’s the labor devoted to paid-for employment and there is volunteer labor.
Let’s call the first one W (for wage) and the second one V (for volunteer). Then, one could note the total household available labor- such as seen above.
If you have a neighborhood of five hundred houses, for instance, you could have multiple households with the same labor mix. Or many varieties of labor mixes.
But the usefulness would be to see how the time available for wage labor balanced with the time available for volunteer work usually associated with community work.
We live such casual lives– meals in front of the TV. Snacks on the run. It really hit home when a college friend invited a few of us over for a Christmas tea. To sit at a well-dressed table is a luxury these days.
The visual appeal first draws you in. The cheery winter colors of red and green are offset against a crisp white tablecloth. The greenery in the centerpiece and window wreaths softens the setting. Then, your hand grazes the linens as you pick up your water glass, and you note the quality of the textile. While reaching for the strawberries you note the warmth of the tea light. There’s an evergreen scent gently emanating from the arrangement.
The hostess has invited you to a table to enjoy fine food and linger. She offers ginger scones with cardamon and curried chicken salad. There is fresh fruit, clotted cream, and jam. The finery of her table makes you feel pampered, and you desire to stay a while in such a fine setting and enjoy the company of friends.
Randy Clark has gotten a hold of a turn-a-bout momentum, bringing the DC metro into an about-face toward ridership satisfaction. Is there a method to his madness? First, consider the background, from the Washingtonian.
Clarke arrived in Washington at a low point for Metro. In July 2022, the Omicron variant was causing a midsummer spike in Covid cases and DC had one of the highest rates of remote work in the country. Bus and rail trips were still stuck at about half their pre-pandemic levels. The previous October, a relatively new 7000-series train had derailed on the Blue Line in Arlington, leading to a rebuke from the National Transportation Safety Board.
The metro chief was not a train enthusiast from the start. But as he went through school, he became fascinated by how transport touches many other aspects of life. People need to connect with each other and travel the distances to do just that, which gives the service a public flair. This sets up the juggle between the funding flow from governing bodies and the satisfaction of the general population.
There are two sometimes conflicting areas of public-transportation management: (a) politics, or how to obtain funding and craft policy, and (b) operations, or how to make trains and buses run safely and on time. An effective transit leader has to excel at both.
The payer and the end user are disjointed. So how does a manager of such a system tie the money and the product together?
A regular rider, Clarke has a commuter’s perspective on Metro—and an executive’s fluency with how it works. Onboard, he tells me about the relative quietness of the system’s tracks (they use massive lengths of continuous welded rail, so they don’t make the loud click-clack of, for example, the New York City subway) and the stretch of track where trains travel fastest (the tunnel between Rosslyn and Foggy Bottom).
It’s hard to get payers on board when the users are unhappy with the product. Clark dedicates himself to changing that.
When the system is working poorly, Metro can feel dated, even a little sad. But when it’s working well, it’s easy to feel the pride behind its creation. Clarke’s fans credit him with restoring that feeling, and he believes vibes matter. When transit infrastructure is broken and dirty, he says, riders and local politicians get frustrated. They ride less, drive more, and—consciously or unconsciously—devalue the system. By contrast, when trains and buses run frequently and stations feel clean, riders feel more pride and lawmakers believe the system is worth supporting.
Priming the pump to lure riders back to the metro is only one side of the story. The funding side is more complicated for this public good because 1. it has no dedicated funding source, and 2. its ridership draws from Virginia, Maryland and DC. Clark must shake out the individuals who place train transit at the forefront of their priorities. He is looking for the individuals out of the three groups who share this transit goal.
For now, Clarke is riding high, the closest thing to a rock star local transit has ever known. And he’s not changing his hands-on approach. As he rides the rails, he notes any problems he sees: Recently, he pointed out a broken gate to a station manager, and repairs were soon made.
There were very, very few minority neighborhoods in the area in 1947. Hence, 98% of displaced people were plain-Jane everyday folk. Here are the demographic numbers for the time that the Interstate was built.
When you can do something this cool with data, why not stick to it and skip the drama?
Hence, economic tasks-whether aiming at the acquisition of wealth or the instruments of defence- are never rigidly given; on the contrary, the rational acceptance of an economic task must always fully weigh up its social implications.
Andrew Yang points out that money won’t always purchase what you want to buy. Despite outspending her competitor handsomely, Harris lost.
You see this in social services too. Money can be poured into some of the most deserving causes: care centers, autism learning, culturally specific food without comparative results.
In fact, the less the objective is tied to a cash response, the more likely the cash flow will be highjacked by fraudsters.
So what is the factor which better represents a price paid for results?
In a recent post, House Prices and Quality: 1971 vs. 2023, Jeremy Horpedahl points out the difference in house prices by time values, which I really like for comparison purposes. He notes, “As you can see, in 2023 it took 31 percent more hours of work to buy a square foot of the median home, compared with 1971.” Furthermore, he makes the adjustments for the extra footage most homes offer today versus when the Brady Bunch lived in their swanky multi-level Californian home.
Then he goes on to say the quality of construction in the 1970s was modern and hence met a certain threshold of acceptability. I would argue that’s not the case. The 70s was a time of experimentation with new methods driven by a desire to enhance eco-friendliness. These materials and techniques did not provide the same longevity of use as the old country techniques from earlier in the century. This article cites a variety of issues. Focusing on a few mechanical components of a home will best exemplify how the norms and standards of the time affect the durability of the product, which is internalized in price.
Homes are expensive to buy and to maintain. One justification for paying the premium for new construction is that all major mechanicals are warranted for ten years, and most, on average, will last more than that. Heating and cooling systems have an average lifespan of fifteen years and cost $12-14K. Roofs keep homeowners dry for twenty-two years or so ($15K). Windows and siding can vary significantly depending on the quality of the materials.
For instance, in the photo on the right, the windows are original to the 1912 apartment building. They are wooden double-hung sashes that protected the lower level laundry and storage area from the weather for a century, serving the purpose intended. The windows on the left are vinyl replacement windows that were installed less than fifteen years ago. The dirty-looking glass is called a broken seal. Moisture has found its way through the double-paned structure, dictating that they are a failed mechanical by industry standards.
Window repair and replacement are among the more costly repairs in a home. The insert on the left probably costs about $3,500 in our market, just for one window.
The 1970s were full of experimentation with lower-quality materials. Hardwood flooring was replaced with plywood and then covered with carpet. Whereas wood floors are sanded and refinished for a beautiful crisp feel once every twenty years, carpet wears out in about a third of the time, seven years. My hardwood flooring guy tells me they have been back to refinish quarter-inch oak in one-hundred-year-old homes. There is the esthetic appeal to this home feature but it also translates to lower upkeep.
Solid stucco exteriors (stucco is a cement-like product that lasts for thirty years or more) are another application prevalent in homes built prior to the 1970s. Exteriors were instead clad in inexpensive plywood. This fibrous product does not necessarily fail in functionality after twenty years but no longer takes paint well and hence looks thrifty. Woodpeckers tend to find it appealing for sharpening their beaks as well.
By the late 1980s, homes built in the 1970s were highly unpopular. In part, their split entry style and vaulting with dark beamed ceilings had lost their cosmetic appeal to younger buyers. Buyers also longed for quality craftsmanship. The seventies homes were built cheaply, and consumers felt it. Most people wouldn’t have verbalized their selection as a commentary on an experiment in housing gone wrong, but they showed it in their choices.
No writer yet has fully succeeded in bringing life together all in one piece. The good writer never stops trying, and he will be discovered, as Steinbeck has been, by the readers for whom he is writing, by those who recognize that he has carried, further than they have been able to carry, some of their own efforts to make life into an orderly pattern. This is what you will find in these short novels, along with much else-beauty (and ugliness), questions (and some answers), and always the high drama, the urgent flow, of fine storytelling. Which is to say you will see Steinbeck plain, and maybe your world, too, a little more plainly than you had before.
Interfaith Outreach (IOPC) is a local organization that provides social support services in the area. Their most recent newsletter encouraged readers to use the power of personal consumption to simultaneously direct funding to their programs. Here how it works.
By frequenting local businesses, a portion of the price paid for a private market transaction will go to IOPC and thus toward a public purpose. It’s all accounted for.
We do this all the time, don’t we? Environmentally friendly consumers pay extra for electric cars or solar panels. Technology-loving individuals churn the tech market by purchasing all the latest innovations and gadgets. Pro-immigration folks frequent small businesses and restaurants run by those who have recently arrived in this country. We have packed purpose and intention into many of the purchases we make daily, even if we can’t come up with a monetary accounting like the one provided above.
Some goods are best produced privately, and some perform better in the public goods market. Production in the former is enhanced by the division of labor, whereas in the latter, crowdsourcing is vital. The recent high-profile apprehension of a person of interest in the death of a local CEO is illustrative.
Let’s break down the Russian Dolls. The largest doll is the level of law enforcement, which is officially put in place by the government and funded through taxation. These forces fall under territorial boundaries. Since the attack against the healthcare executive took place on the sidewalk in front of the Hilton in Manhattan, the NYPD is in charge of the case.
These uniformed professionals went to work and quickly found the getaway route the suspected assailant took leaving the scene. He fled on foot and then jumped on an e-bike. He went through Central Park and ended up at a bus station. The officers were fortunate to find out the suspect had spent the night at a local youth hostel (Time).
A senior law enforcement official is quoted as telling the Times that the person of interest photographed used a fake New Jersey identification to book a room at a hostel, checking in on Nov. 24 after arriving in the city via bus. He then checked out of the hostel on Nov. 29, before checking back in the next day.
The real breakthrough from this local contact was a photo of the normally masked man who had been snapped in the hostel lobby. He showed his features at the friendly receptionist’s request. A citizen can contribute to an investigation simply by following the rules of their employment.
As the manhunt continued into other states, the following levels of Russian Dolls were engaged. Even though the NYPD remained in charge of the official investigation, it depended upon the work and resources of many other branches across state lines. These details remained in their reporting realm. While the media activated public interest in the case, they kept the general public interested in the pursuit.
This brings us to the McDonald’s worker who noticed a similar-looking young man in his restaurant. He could have looked the other way. Now we are down to the last Russian doll. Not everyone at this level will engage. How many others saw the perp, became suspicious, and stayed quiet? There’s a potential cost of reporting, and not everyone is willing to take the risk.
Fortunately, the greater society doesn’t need everyone to report. Only one person needs to step up. This is not pay-by-the-hour employment; it is a job one does under the influence of a shared vision when the duty shows up on the other side of your counter at McDonald’s.
Public goods respond well to this blended model of paid personnel in conjunction with a more significant population of people who follow the norms, like the youth hostel receptionist, and those willing to take risks and report. But I do hope the McDonald’s worker gets a bonus.
Crisis [ˈkrīsəs], noun, a time of intense difficulty, trouble, or danger.
Let’s consider a few housing facts to see if the state of our housing needs rise to that level in MN:
According to the US Census, Minnesota’s homeownership rate has hovered between 72% and 76% in the last four years. This is well above the national homeownership rate of 65%.
Minnesota’s foreclosure rate is down 9% from last year and ranks 27th nationwide with 370 homes in foreclosure or 1 out of 6,740. (Attomdata)
It seems that many Minnesotans can afford to own homes. Few are having difficulty maintaining their ownership positions. Crisis of homeownership averted in the far north.
That’s not to say that there may be housing issues for non-homeowners. Princeton University tracks evictions. Minnesota is third from the bottom on their list, at 4%. So renters don’t seem abnormally stressed or in crisis.
For those undergoing foreclosure or eviction, there is a crisis. Thus, they should receive the appropriate support to help them navigate their way to a solution to reestablishing shelter.
There is a crisis. It’s a crisis of wasteful regulation. So, call that out and make efforts for reform where needed.
I’ve taken to finding new viewing options by searching by actors. That’s how I found Prime Suspect, by searching the projects Helen Mirren has been involved in. And it does not disappoint.
My husband finds old movies tiresome. The dated sets and lack of technology leave him longing for more recent productions. I love seeing pleated trousers, blazers with shoulder pads, and feathered haircuts. It’s nostalgic, and I often remember owning just such a trench coat.
This story starts with DCI Jane Tennison running against the steady headwinds of 1990s sexism in the workplace. I find it invigorating to note how much a part of history’s overt disdain for women in leadership positions has become. Not gone, mind you. But certainly passé in most instances.
The quality of the scripts, actors, and productions is as strong as expected for a series that has won multiple awards. Helen Mirren is a gem set in an expansive and glittering piece of jewelry.
In a recent post about time prices, the excellent Jeremy Horpedahl noted that workers are better off today than in 1924 except in the cost of housing. These comments are rooted in data compiled by Anthony Davies.
Rent is shown to be less expensive than in 1924 in small and medium cities, not more expensive, and by quite a bit. Living in a small city today only costs the worker 4.7 days of labor versus 1.3 weeks in days of yore.
However, consider the increase in the cost of living in a large city, shown at 2 weeks versus a week and a half. Doesn’t the proximity to work and services save workers a considerable amount of time? Many people who live in smaller towns or rural areas commute long distances to work. They drive to larger commercial centers for shopping and medical services. In an emergency, an ambulance service can run up a large bill.
Aren’t there considerably more services in the large cities than in 1924? In addition to road transit, there is access to international airports. The city is also the heart of entertainment culture, from major sports franchises to fine arts and musical venues. Conferences take place in the city, and universities are located there. Cities provide the landscape for all the restaurants and eateries where politicians and leading business figures congregate.
When you rent in a large city, part of what you pay is the capitalization of the entrance fees to many more social enterprises that were not available in 1924.
If I can stop one heart from breaking, I shall not live in vain; If I can ease one life the aching, Or cool one pain, Or help one fainting robin Unto his nest again, I shall not live in vain.
Here at Home-Economics, we argue that there are two motivations behind every transaction. People trade to benefit the public interest, such as funding flood insurance relief at the federal level. On the other hand, people are motivated to trade for the benefit of themselves—the purchase of a private residence to house a family. A blended purchase is easily seen at a fundraiser when a guest pays an inflated price for TimberWolves tickets, obtaining the private benefit of going to a basketball game while the surcharge is kept by the non-profit.
Goods traded in private markets have certain traits and are taxed and supervised by a governing body. Non-profits and governments provide many public goods and services that are not taxed nor subject to the same level of oversight. But what about private companies that provide public goods? This seems to be at the crux of the recent kerfuffle over Google.
The issue at hand is the Google search function. Clients do not pay to use it. Clients can use any other search engine and have them appear as the default web page. The search page is access to an environment. Just as the air conditioning in the mall is paid to make the shopping experience of mall shoppers more enjoyable is an enhancement to a public space, a high-functioning search is an enhanced entrance to the internet. They are both public goods to the groups of people who access their spaces.
What would be a beneficial review of a public good? Is it available to the greater group without impediments? Google search- yes to all those who have access to the internet. (Efforts are underway to make it available to residents in rural Minnesota). Is the search function supported voluntarily with some degree of additional financial support? Yes, there has been substantial investment in R&D for the benefit of the consumer. Is it providing a beneficial service? Yes- Without a doubt.
Not all public activities can meet these thresholds with the same confidence level.
I just finished Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s Infidel, a memoir, and I was sad to see it end.
Here’s a post about the clashing commitments among her clansmen at the beginning of her life in Somalia. Later, she became famous as a politician in the Netherlands for exposing the experiences of subjugated women from her homeland mistreatment within the national boundaries of land that outlaw such things. She sorts the Russian dolls of a culture living within a culture and brings light to the injustice of old tribal traditions in high contrast to Western freedom from harm.
Her dangerous tales of uprooting ancient and crushing traditions are attention-getting, even if safely done within modern institutions. The earlier narratives, though, stirred memories from my time in the Horn of Africa in the mid-1970s. She tells of the schoolgirls in uniforms walking down the dusty roads of Nairobi. She fills in the backstories of many fellow students during my time at Lycee Gebre Mariam.
My brother and I are the only fair-haired kids in the bunch.
In our first year, we were in the Accueil class, which brought our language skills to a level where we could integrate with the mainstream kids. The group was a hodgepodge of international students from Dutch to Japanese to West African. There was no common language, which forced everyone to learn a new language.
Listening to a complainer can be tedious. Wonh, wonh, waaaa. The sun isn’t shining bright enough, their coffee isn’t hot enough, and on it goes. It can be a character trait for some. If they can’t see something off in their world, then the world itself is the object of their grief.
But some folks are constructive complainers. For the most part, they go along to get along. But then something strikes them as idiotic. These people’s opinions most probably have some merit. So let them vent! Not only is it therapeutic, but it is also valuable. Listen to Bill Maher complain to Jane Fonda about the regulatory burden on his garage door.
Now—there’s no point in complaining when the powers that be are in no mood to listen. Every kid knows to take the temperature of the room before making requests to mom or dad. A parent recovering from a rough day is bound to be a more stringent rulemaker. Biding a little time can result in greater freedom. Wait them out until their frame of mind improves.
The time seems right in America for objections to inefficiencies. If you can’t get your garage door replaced, say it out loud. If you can’t get your lot approved for a rebuild—take it to the airwaves. The mood is open to housing growth over fears of a tall building throwing shade on a neighbor for a few hours daily.
Complaining is also most productive when solutions are possible. A deep recession is not such a time, for instance. But today’s economic environment is solid. There’s money churning in the system, and workers are able to get out and about ready to tackle new projects. Set them to work by complaining!
Hopefully, the record-keeping types will jump on board with this project and collect the notes. The same folks who show up at the PTA meetings and scribble out the meeting minutes in shorthand are perfect for the job. If they could pair up with someone gifted in the data visualization field, even better. Then, the crucial complaints can be told boldly, the numbers can be tallied for depth, and the information can be shared repeatedly so all benefit from the feedback.
Don’t delay. Time is not on the complainers’ side. It will soon become unpopular to lodge criticisms, no matter how objective. Just remember, riffling through all that mud, one is bound to dig out a few precious gems.
Home Economics 