Podcast Episode 41: Freedom of Association vs Anti-Discrimination Laws

Freedom to refuse service

Freedom of association

Lawsuits against wedding cake businesses who refuse to make a cake for gay weddings

Anti-discrimination laws for employers

This idea sounds good in theory but has unintended consequences

Whenever we try to legislate morality it becomes difficult to enforce and usually starts creating inequalities with how people are treated under law

If I have a company I have the right to refuse service to anyone no matter what because it’s my company. If I want to be a racist that is my right. I will probably go out of business but I have the right to make that choice.

If I want to fire someone I should be able to do that for any reason whatsoever. For the same reasoning. If I fire people because I’m racist then I will miss out on good employees from other races and will be less competitive. Plus as news of my stance spreads, there will be many people that will boycott my business because of that.

The market will correct itself if people truly believe in a cause.

If the government gets involved it can create many unintended consequences. If I fire someone because they are a bad employee. They might try to sue me for discrimination. Well I was discriminating... against bad employees. The creates an enforcement issue that favors bad employees because they have less to lose from the situation.

What if I have a haircutting place for people with african style hair. Someone that doesn’t have that type of hair would be discriminated against because they can’t be served.

What about a mens haircut place? Is that discriminating against women?

If I have a sales job then I might want someone who can speak fluent english. Is that discrimination?

What about movie studios, when they need someone to fill a black role is that being racist that they aren’t hiring white people?

Podcast Episode 40: Natural Talent and Hard Work Are No Longer Enough

Against the Rules with Michael Lewis

Natural Talent is no longer enough

When playing sports the older you get, the less it is about natural talent

Canadian kids highlight the advantage of coaching

Thrive 15 coaches businesses to success

Kids that have better test coaches/tutors get higher scores on standardized tests

Better schools lead to better outcomes

No matter how good/smart you are, you will not be able to compete for long without some sort of coaching.

Is this a problem that exacerbates inequality?

Podcast Episode 39: Motion Sensor Solar Lights

Solar Motion Sensor Lights

http://www.thesurvivalpodcast.com/aiotd-4-13-17

 

I found some cheap with a deal several years ago and really liked them. I don’t have a specific brand but Jack over at the Survival Podcast recommends these ones and his reviews are very reliable.

Podcast Episode 38: How a Free Market Handles Shortages (Toilet Paper Anyone?)

Auto-Adjusting Price

https://twitter.com/bytemaster7/status/1254229127219105793

Empty shelves are evidence of government interference in the free market or an economically ignorant population educated by said government. In free markets scarce goods are always available at a price and competition keeps it as low as possible.

In an optimized market store shelves could automatically increase pricing as inventory fell and lower pricing as inventory rises.  Imagine if we used bancor to ensure everything is always available to those who need it most when they need it.

All the more reason to have prices rapidly adjusted to ration remaining supplies and reward those who prepared. Instead we punish those who prepare to serve this market by denying them profits.

Those guys take an economic bet that future demand will be higher.  Further more, if stores had dynamic pricing then it wouldn’t be possible to buy them out to resell higher.

In a market with fair money and free from government distortion those with money have earned it by providing value to others in the past.  If money is not the arbiter of scarce resources then political clout or those willing to wait in line at 3am become the “virtuous” entitled.

Podcast Episode 37: Should I Invest In Bitcoin?

What is bitcoin

Peer-to-peer network

Immutable Ledger of transactions

Decentralized

Bitcoin solved the “double spend” problem

World wide access (internet)

Fixed supply. Rate of inflation cannot be altered

Relatively fast and cheap transactions

Risks:

In a normal market, as demand increases the price increases which leads to more supply being created by producers joining the market which lowers the price which leads to less supply being created as producers leave the market.

This happens constantly which allows the price (supply and demand) to reach an equilibrium.

If you have something with a fixed supply then there is no way for supply to adjust to meet demand. This means that the price is completely tied to demand. And because demand is the unpredictable and uncontrollable aspect of price. The swings can be irrational at times.

This is predicted to lead to volatility.

There are other, theoretically better, cryptocurrencies out there that could make bitcoin obsolete.

There could be a new technology that renders bitcoin useless. Perhaps quantum computers

Conclusion:

Many people have gotten rich from the large price swings of bitcoin.

Many people have lost everything from the large price swings

At this early stage it isn’t really an investment, it’s speculation. Which means that you should only speculate with money that you are willing to lose because you probably will.

Podcast Episode 36: CamelCamelCamel.com

Amazon price tracker

Notifies you when it hits a certain price

Shows best deals on amazon

Rss feeds of deals in a category

It only saves you money if you would’ve spent it anyway

Just because it’s a deal doesn’t mean you have to buy it.

Podcast Episode 35: Virtual Reality Driver Training

Virtual reality simulator that mimics real driving as much as possible

Let kids drive when they get a high enough score?

Your car can judge your driving?

Yearly test or something

Maybe a vr app you could have at home.

Over time your score goes down

As you drive in the app your score goes up

Testing centers