lines in the sand

A New High

This post by Rand Simberg talks about my favorite example of Technology Overapplication and reminds me of an event several years ago.

While waiting for a bank's service rep to pick up the phone, I was reminded every minute or so that the bank was "sorry for the delay".  Each message was varied a little but not enough to kill the boredom - until I was told they were "experiencing an unprecedented volume of calls".  I wonder what number the counter had reached, and shouldn't I have gotten balloons and streamers and stuff?

Lies, Damned Lies and Semantics

Last weekend, Bruce Bartlett got the Fair Tax Fanatics' collective goat with this column.  Without question, the most damaging argument that Bartlett and others bring to the table is that what supporters call a 23% embedded tax is really a 30% sales tax.  Who would pay $1.3 million for a million dollar house?

So what is this “Fair Tax” thing?

First, it isn't fair. Taxes are legalized confiscation and inherently unfair. But backers had to call it something catchy to sell it, so I'll cut them some slack on that.

Every price has taxes built into it. There are payroll taxes, income taxes and excise taxes, not just on the business that sells an item at retail, but also on the ones that provide materials to make that item and that transport those materials and finished goods. Of each dollar consumers spend, whether for a bottle of water or a million dollar house, about 23 cents goes for some some kind of Federal tax and then most states add a sales tax on top of that.

The Fair Tax proposal eliminates all those buried taxes and replaces them with a single very visible levy on the retail sale. Since it replaces 23% of current costs, it is calculated as 23% of the total sale price: Washington gets 23 cents and the seller gets 77 cents. Bartlett chooses an alternate calculation, calling 77 cents the price and adding 30% to that ( 77 x 30% = 23). Both approaches have the same result so this is a battle of semantics, not substance.  Unfortunately for the promoters, the 30% markup is more intuitive for most people, especially when critics neglect to mention that at the same time that happens, the dollar they are applying it to drops to 77 cents.

I'm not a fanatic about the Fair Tax, but I do favor it over the current system and any of the other alternatives being discussed.  Over the next few days, I'll explain why.

Singing in the Rain

A new musical term?

Erin still kicking

What's left of tropical storm Erin is still kicking but in the midwest plains, as pointed out by Alan Sullivan.  In fact, though she never made it past tropical storm designation, she has caused more deaths so far than cat 5 Dean.

As long-lived tropical systems go, though, it's going to be tough to beat Ivan in 2004, Florida's Year of the Storms.  Ivan struck the state twice, first at Pensacola then near Miami nearly a week later, after a tour of Virginia and the southeast coastline.  Of course it was just a depression then but did regain tropical storm status just before a third landfall between Texas and Louisianna.  With all the other storm activity around then, nobody really noticed.

Kudos for Unfortunate Missteps

The other day the Orlando Sentinel published  this editorial, taking Publix and Disney to task for 'unfortunate missteps'.  Publix pharmacies had quit matching others' low prices on prescriptions when it started offering certain ant-biotics for free.  Disney did make a stupid call when it found out a cruise through the Panama Canal was going to involve more fees that it expected and tacked a surcharge onto tickets that were already booked.  The unsurprising result was unhappy customers and they quickly rescinded the fare increase.

Today the paper published my response to that editorial.

   A few weeks ago Publix sold me a very good hot dog, a bag of chips and a soft drink for $2. Now, I suppose they should be criticized for discontinuing that altruistic "affordable lunch" program after just one weekend. At least that's the logic that calls the grocer's recent change in prescription-drug offerings consumer-unfriendly.

   Publix's low-priced prescription-drug programs have never been about altruism. They are marketing hype -- like "all the news that's fit to print" or "fair and balanced."

   The old program was just a "me too" response to other stores' loss leaders. By offering a limited selection of drugs at no cost, Publix has traded the role of copycat for that of innovator. The public has not been hurt since we can still buy drugs at the competition's lowest price -- from the competition! In fact, we have more options than before and can take advantage of both. That's how a free market works.

   As for Disney's boneheaded decision to raise cruise prices after the fact, I always try to give more weight to what someone does about a mistake than to the mistake itself. After all, everybody makes them. In this case, Disney did the right thing when it took a cue from Emily Litella and just said, "Never mind."

   Every business has things to criticize, but these actions should be commended.

Universal Healthcare is not...

Coyote describes impending Universal Health Care.

Remember this -- Universal health care is NOT a system in which the majority of us who are satisfied with our care can keep our current system, while the poor get a better one.  It is a system where all of us are thrown out of our current system and given the same care the poor get.  It is roughly equivalent to a Great Society housing program in which not just the homeless get housing, but everyone in the country are forced to give up their current house and live in public housing.