1. One part of the financial sector is still growing.
2. How to think about when a school should close for illness.
3. CT seminar on Steve Teles and the conservative legal movement.
5. Tyler Cowen time log and interview.
6. How many people die from the flu each year and how do we know?
7. Daniel Akst is now blogging for the Atlantic.
Regarding the Kindle post, the reason we balk at paying $15 for an electronic book is that we know the actual costs of electronic distribution are miniscule compared to old fashioned printing and distribution costs. So we expect the price to be much lower.
The author is only getting a dollar or two at best from each book, while Amazon and the publisher keep the lion’s share of the sales price. That price structure doesn’t represent the actual value of the product. People who purchase books are buying ideas. E-books in particular are condensed down to that essence with very few external costs. The author has generated the actual value in the product; while publishers just distribute it. As distribution costs drop, the distributor’s share of the profits should dwindle, because the author will be less dependent on publishers to distribute his or her work. Ideally, if distribution costs are zero, the amount the author receives should equal the amount paid by the reader.
2. Schools should be closed early and often and replaced with computers, maybe kindles. Kids could be certified by 3rd parties and on-line entities we currently call U. of Phoenix or the like. Outliers incapable of self-motivation can be taken to bricks and morter sites we currently call schools.
Outliers incapable of self-motivation can be taken to bricks and morter sites we currently call schools.
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