Letters to the Editor
mitch
Published Letters: 42 Editor's Choice: 26
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The hubbub is still worthwhile
[Read the article: Microsoft: Just following Chinese orders]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]A lot of people make this "corporations only care about the bottom line and it's silly to expect them to care about anything else" argument. The point that's often missed, though, is that public disapproval can and does affect the bottom line. Boycotts and other forms of bad publicity may not have a large effect, but they do make a difference.
We may not be suprised when a corporation does something we don't like, but complaining about it is still a good idea. Enough complaints might even translate into legislation.
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This is a good idea
[Read the article: Salon gets (more) interactive]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Lots of people have interesting things to say, but very few people have enough to say that I'll make their individual blog a regular destination. How many "sorry I haven't been updating my blog" blog posts have you seen?
Various kinds of aggregation are part of the solution to that problem, but some editorial filtering would really improve the aggregate. Also, I think a focus on slightly longer pieces would bring out a lot of cool stuff. On a blog, my attention starts to wander after a few paragraphs, but if I know beforehand that I'm going for something longer, and if I know someone is filtering out the dreck for me, I'm much more inclined to read an essay.
The editing doesn't have to be terribly labor intensive; some kind of community moderation would be great by itself.
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"widespread misfortune"?
[Read the article: The housing bubble blog bubble]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The peak oil doomers are talking about serious widespread devastation; it is a little disturbing that they would be happy about it, even if it does mean vindication for them. On the other hand, falling house prices have a much more even balance between winners and losers. In expensive areas, homeowners are often a minority, even; in those areas, a price drop would be widespread good fortrune.
We could also make better use of the excess resources that are currently mis-allocated toward housing.
The glee makes you uneasy, presumably, because you own a home. So yes, a price drop would be a bad thing, for you, but it's too easy to assume that you stand for everyone else. Have you ever wondered how your kids are going to buy a house?
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re: widespread misfortune
[Read the article: The housing bubble blog bubble]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Thanks for the clarification, and what you say does make a lot of sense. I guess I'm in the camp that considers the American consumption boom to be unsustainably imbalanced, and I'd like to get back to some kind of equilibrium as soon as possible. So, as far as that goes, I'm not rooting for a painful crash, but just for a return to what I consider sanity. I think a lot of people commenting on the bubble blogs fall in to this slightly more moderate category.
Then again, I've also got put options on homebuilders and subprime lenders, so for that reason I am rooting for a crash :)
And yes, I do rent.
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housing resource mis-allocation
[Read the article: The housing bubble blog bubble]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Also, for a example of what I meant by resources (human resources, in this case) that are mistakenly being spent on housing-related activity, read The Tragedy of the Commission (google for the phrase). It turns out that higher house prices don't result in higher incomes for realtors, they just result in lots more realtors wasting huge amounts of time competing for business.
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schadenfreude
[Read the article: No fear]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's understandable for the interviewer to be intimidated by someone famous. Still, the subtext of the interview was clearly "you may be famous, but wow, you're old". How many times can you allude to it in one article? A lot, apparently.
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self-reflective culture
[Read the article: Networked information economists]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I think Benkler is right that participation in networked discussion will cause a cultural shift. I believe it will be a generational thing, though--the people shouting at each other across the internets today already have their minds mostly closed. Moving forward, as people get exposed to a broader array of viewpoints at a younger age, they'll be better at dealing with disagreement.
Anecdotally, my experience with fidonet in early high schoool taught me a lot. Being able to cross the red-state/blue-state lines from inside your own home is a new phenomenon that had a big effect on me, and I have to think that lots of other people are going to go through the same thing.
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Let's lose the ad-hominem
[Read the article: Failure to use Google should be a crime]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Sure, the one-sentence headline may be a mis-characterization, but can't we look at what he's actually saying, rather than just focusing on what his history is?
In the Wired piece, IMO he comes across as a pretty reasonable guy:
"There's no getting around the fact that 6 billion people wake up every morning with a real need for food, energy, and material." It is this fact, he charges, that environmentalists fail to grasp.
I've yet to see someone make a good counterargument to this.
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typo
[Read the article: Fun with housing numbers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Quoted in the story is economist Bob Brusca, who says the new home numbers are deceptive. He points to yet another set of numbers: Median and average home prices dropped in March from both February and last month.
I think you meant to say that median and average home prices dropped in March from both February and last year.
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Robot Chicken
[Read the article: I Like to Watch]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I agree that this season's crop of comedy has been weak. I remember seeing the emmy nominations and looking at the dramas and thinking "wow, I watch almost all of those--maybe I watch too much TV" and then looking at the comedies and thinking "what are all these shows?".
One show that has had me laughing pretty consistently, though, is Robot Chicken. The humor is mostly aimed at a pretty narrow demographic, but if you're in that range it's hilarious. Also, it helps if you get a kick out of surrealism.