And the government knows it, since I googled "frog dream interpretation." Then I mistakenly put my password in the user field when I logged onto my bank account, so now they know my password. People call this paranoia, I call it getting my money's worth. If we are paying trillions for security, there damned better be total information awareness.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Exceptional Wealth and Soup
Subsidies and regulations take price calculation out of the equation: if the campbells soup is $1, you know it will cost $1.10, with tax. Given the subsidies and regulations of everything from labels to cans to transportation to ingredients, Campbell's has a monopoly on the $1.10 can of soup. Relatives of mine developed a $3 bag of soup, and got rich selling it to Campbells, but no one can go head to head with Campbells on the $1.10 can of soup. The market cannot work thus subjective value and price is inoperative. What makes a market is not so much price, but alternatives.
"Hey, this $1.10 soup is better for me than that $1.10 soup... hang on, and here is a 99 cent soup, with leeks!"
All market activity starts with dissatisfaction, maybe just a hankering for soup, macht schnell, wiki wiki, toot sweet. All products and services are solutions to problems. That is what is on the shelf now. There is no solution that cannot be improved upon, that is what the entrepreneur does, serving the market by peeling off customers not satisfied with what is on the shelf; this is the expansion of the division of labor in practice, true wealth.
It is also why there can never be exceptional wealth in a free market; a free market absent subsidies and regulations will ever fine tune the selection of goods and services to meet profitably the demands of the market. The good folks at Campbells will ever see any portion of their customer base, as soon as it experiences any dissatisfaction, in a measure that anyone might profitably satisfy them, defect to the upstart. It is what we see in practice in places like Hong Kong. Full employment and new products ever made more better cheaper faster, the ultimate in distributive or economic justice!
Conditioning, Section 8, Follow The Money
While blaming Obama is the latest scapegoating in a country founded by men who dressed up like Mohicans to perform the Boston Tea Party (blame it on the Indians) I am noting far more articles portraying blacks in disgraceful habit. In this episode unruly blacks race to get Section 8 vouchers, a federal program that pays the difference between what rent is and what you can afford.
Because I am wealthy and well connected I pay about $400 a month for 2 bedroom in a garden spot with private access to Lake Washington. That is the going rate in a free market, one in which connections matter.
Blacks in USA, as they begin to develop separate but equal circumstances, find their worlds destroyed. Compensating programs appear to benefit groups, in this case Blacks, but that would be misleading. Section 8 is landlord welfare, wherein if a landlord is experiencing a 40% vacancy rate, he need not cut rent to fill his building, he merely gets fed vouchers to put poor people in at full rent, so 100% occupancy at the highest rent rate. This means the people in the building are subsidizing, on top of taxpayers, the landlords profits.
Now Section 8 can also be used for blockbusting purposes. Say there is an apartment building district, nice upscale, with one building for sale. An enterprising landlord will buy the building and load it up with section 8 tenants. As the neighborhood goes down, the landlord can buy up the other buildings cheap, and load them with section eight too. There goes the neighborhood.
If you are about to rent, always ask if the building accepts section 8. The landlord will not know if you are pro or con, and will likely tell you the truth. (If he hangs up on you, call back, it is not section 8) If it is a section 8 building, expect more disease (I was renting once in a building where they began accepting section 8, within 2 weeks a memo went out, please do not leave garbage in hallways, it attracts rats...) and crime, and you'll be paying more. Avoid Section 8 buildings at all costs.
It is not unique to Blacks that agitating leaders are bought of and the masses behind them continue to languish. In USA as Pat Buchanan notes:
Though 10 percent of the U.S. civilian labor force, African-Americans are 18 percent of U.S. government workers. They are 25 percent of the employees at Treasury and Veterans Affairs, 31 percent of the State Department, 37 percent of Department of Education employees and 38 percent of Housing and Urban Development. They are 42 percent of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., 55 percent of the employees at the Government Printing Office and 82 percent at the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency....that 44 percent of Fannie employees and 50 percent of Freddie's were persons of color.
Every government needs its despised class, India the Dalit, Japan the Ainu, China the Hakka (among others), communism the Kulak, and capitalism has the Blacks. And in every system they buy off the agitators.
There is nothing said about blacks today that was not said about the Irish a century ago. O! But there is a difference: skin color! Then you do not know how easy it is to spot an Irishman, if you are looking, and how socially conditioned the elite were to recoil in their presence, just as we are socially conditioned regarding Blacks today.
When a people allow power, sought and unsought, to aggregate in the hands of a few, those suffering from libido dominandi will strive to positions of leadership, and then exercise their terrible power. I know a cop whose stated reason for joining the force was to hammer blacks.
Although I regret the unfairness and indecency shown Blacks in USA, it is no problem of mine. I am sure there is even grace behind their suffering. Louis Farrakhan has demonstrated Blacks can live a separate but equal life in America, like the Amish, and what problem they have they can work on, like the Irish. But that is no solution, because I am still denied the benefit of competing with blacks in business.
(There is a wonderful film clip, I watched the original, circa 1964, American Bandstand, where the Rolling Stones followed James Brown. Mick Jagger stared offstage at James Brown, trying to mimic Brown's moves. Jagger's trademark spastic moves are compliments of Brown's dynamism.)
We ought not be limited to competing with blacks in showmanship, imagine the benefit if blacks were allowed in architecture, science, medicine and so on!
I would note that the Black elite makes much of the N word, to the extent that using the word "niggardly" can cost you your job (one of the few words to come to English from Swedish.) Reflect that the really damaging word is "black" as though there is such a thing. Black implies a homogeneity, a group of people similar enough to have necessary leaders. No such group exists, any more than "white." We are all unique, and no leader can represent us in any way. Of course no "black," then no black leaders. Like all people forming groups and demanding a leader, the leaders get bought off and the followers are targeted.
Of course, in a free market there are no leaders, just commercial transactions... the colors that matter are gold and silver.
Wednesday, July 13, 2011
War Stories
On Jul 13, 2011, at 3:26 PM, Bill wrote:
**Yes, I can go on forever with such stories, but....***On another note, I've gotten a chance to watch the video on Chinese knives; very interesting. And I'm also glad that your boss came out with a book. His story is truly indeed, amazing. ( A definite buy.) Your blog and Yahoo groups presents many different ideas & concepts. It is a little different than what I expected.
*** when I do... such as... " a designer I was working with, on handpainted glasses... now decals are mass printed on special decal paper... he suggested we handpaint decals and apply them to the glasses...And one last note, I definitely understand when you say that your class is a "how to" and not a "copy John." However, I was just hoping to better understand the "process" or have a more detailed walk-through. (Though I understand that you've talked in-depth about the fundamentals of turning an idea into a product, and bringing it into the market during your class.)
sigh.. this guy was fresh off the boat.. he did not understand the point of decals... mass production... so I carefully explained that to him... he as patiently explained that the special dcal ink can be bought bulk and images handpainted on the decal paper...
... hand paint decals in china, fedex decals to usa, apply decals to usa glass... and sell as handpainted glass, made in usa...whoa... brilliant... low cost, much design, high perceived value... rare combination...." it is another of MY stories... and...
*** I was already in glassware, the reps told me to expand my lines into glass candles...***For example, in one of your videos you mentioned a glass candle. It would be interesting to see how you thought up this idea (making the assumption this is one of your products)...Well...normal candles burn out and don't last. Why don't they just create glass candles that could be refilled and reused?
Or in addition, products that didn't make it to market? Or where the product got so far and eventually died? Or horror stories?
*** what I want to impress on you is I have such stories because I started... and you will to, when and if you start... forget about hearing mine and start getting into your own.... there is my fear... you will listen john instead of happen bill...***
John
Tuesday, July 12, 2011
Immelt On Recovery
USA will never recover as long as welfare queens like Jeffery Immelt has any say so. Here is his advice:
"The people who are part of the business sector, the people in this room, have got to stop complaining about government and get some action underway," he told the group. "There's no excuse today for lack of leadership. The truth is we all need to be part of the solution."
Well, he would say that, wouldn't he? From a company who lives off welfare from the government, is constantly bailed out, this is a bit much. A major reason we are in the trouble we are in is because of the existence of GE. If GE was allowed to fail, due to the poor management of Jack Welch and Jeffery Immelt, then massive misallocated resources would be released to feed a recovery.
Imports Up!
The increase is probably due to the price of oil, but fact is imports are up... more here...
Monday, July 11, 2011
Recycling
If you like recycling, you will love China. China is the #1 buyer of USA scrap, such as paper, plastic, metal, glass... in fact... USA is the #1 exporter in the world of scrap, and China is the USA #1 buyer. Our #1 export in VOLUME is scrap.
Nonetheless, there is not anywhere near the market for recycled goodies as we collect. Something like 80% or more of what we sort out, goes to the recyclers, who then bundled it up by category and then send it to the landfill where it is dumped anyway. But we all feel better, don't we?
The City of Seattle has purchased very expensive and fancy trash cans, which feature 2 sections...
A top that collects cans and bottle, and a bottom that collects paper and trash... so even at the city you are performing the religious ritual of sorting trash.
Eventually, and I've watched this, the trashman comes along and flips a lever below the can and bottle top portion, which allows the cans and bottles you carefully sorted to drop into the portion where the trash goes, so it is all mixed together when the trash man collects the bags.
Tax dollars at work!
No Takers
This bicycle was made by a california chopper company, the welding was astonishingly good. The back tire must have cost $250, and all of the other parts were first rate. A clerk in shop was offering it for $100... no takers. The bottom of a market is not low prices, it is no buyers.
I Voted For Change
A fellow standing by a freeway off ramp has a clever pitch...
Colloquy On Design
Now I've written much more than I anticipated. My original questions were more on design and more about the stuff you've done. I'm actually very interested in the things/ projects that you have done...
*** John Lennon is quoted as saying he did not like to listen to other people’s music because they did not do it right. Whether that is apochryphal or not, it illustrates a good point. You need to get where you haven’t the slightest interest in anything anyone else is doing, because what you are doing is challenging to yourself on every level.
My class and book is “how to...” not “copy John.” When I followed this “how to” that I learned form others, I made myself happy. If you follow me, and not the lessons, you will end up with what I have, which will make you very unhappy. The paradigm you are following is “get a job, and get promotions.” I give plenty of examples of what I have done, reluctantly, because the people who appreciate those are the least likely to proceed. They still want inspiration from without, instead of tapping inspiration from within.***
Design:
I think I am still struggling with this issue.
***Many people do, and I am probably the only business instructor that touches this topic, in the world, in history. Plenty of people teach design, but design for other businesses, design to get a job, not self-employment.***
I've looked at the website link you provided, I've watched some of the series on Connections, I started reading the book Innovation and Entrepreneurship, and I've looked at some retail stores for some ideas.
*** Everything except what I advise.***
When I think about the question, "Why don't they just...?" My mind comes to a blank (granted I can come up with ideas other ways). Perhaps it is not the right question.
***It is the right question, because it leads to the right answer. If your mind is drawing a blank, it is likely creativity was beaten out of you early on, at least that is what I see so often. Someone wants to experiment with racing pigeon nutrition, and they are dragooned into studying medicine or law or accounting, a complete waste of a life.***
Either way, I know it is something I'll have to contend with (though I have thought about some options to get ideas*).
***You do experience problems. You can pause and reflect. You may think up a solution, You are able to perceive if working on the problem gives you joy. You can do it, you have just been “trained” otherwise.***
I think part of the challenge is that I'm a very hands-on person. And I need to be able to see and do it before I really understand it.
***That is normal, not a problem. So see and do racing pigeon nutrition, or whatever.***
But it does astound me that you make it "seem" like ideas come so freely. The next 500 ideas...? While it remains quite the challenge for me...
***It is a habit, like adding up license plate numbers or anything else you want to do with your mind... you start looking at everything critically, and then redesigning anything and everything you encounter, in your mind. But only act on problems that give you joy to work on...***
Thank you greatly for your response and time! Looking forward to hearing from you.
***Your direct, non-nonsense questions are a great set-up to get explicit about competing on design... you’ve got me to express is clear and forceful... thanks!
John***
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Amazon On Fashion
I was uploading my second book to Kindle on Amazon today when a noticed a link to a MyHabit-Fashion... since I believe it is hard to sell compete-on-design items on the web, I wanted to see how Amazon.com is working it. Very well, I think.
It has the age-old problem of what happens if you have a hit... you have the production capacity and credit capacity for 500 units per month, but Amazon lands 5000 orders in a month... you cannot ask customer to wait ten months... and expansion quickly for short term is so expensive it usually overwhelms any possible profit.
"But but but... it gets my name out there..." You do not need your name out there, you need profitable orders. The way to build a business is slowly, carefully, serving markets you can manage profitably, and build a solid, profitable franchise.
The best sales are when your products are found in a leading retailer and the customer takes the time to enjoy trying it on, taking compliments, and buying the item. Returns from internet sales can be heavy. It is important to keep and eye, a skeptical eye, on the internet, but don't lose your head.
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