Quotation of the Day

[Karel]

The economist Milton Friedman said that once, while he was taken to see a canal that was being dug, he expressed astonishment that there was no heavy earth-moving machinery, only men with shovels. A government official said that was because the project was a jobs program. Well, then, Friedman replied, shouldn't they use spoons rather than shovels?

Milton Friedman? William Aberhart? Unemployed Worker? Businessman in China? UK Minister of Agriculture?

Isn’t research fun?

[Karel]

[...]

(Wow, Karel. This is impressive!) The Dutch prison crisis: A shortage of prisoners

By Lucy Ash BBC News, Veenhuizen

It is. Interesting article. Unsurprisingly, there are people who insist on longer sentences, less alternative sentences, and a reduction/abolition of rehabilitation programs, as we are too soft on criminals, or something. And they are riding the populist wave...

[mimo_100]

Milton Friedman? William Aberhart? Unemployed Worker? Businessman in China? UK Minister of Agriculture?

Isn’t research fun?

Thanks for your research. You need send it to the Wall Street Journal and let them know of their error, according to this article.

I liked this quote because of this. At the end, the author wrote "The primary image of replacing the shovels of workers with spoons is very memorable. The acerbic humor touches on deeper issues of efficiency, productivity, and the purpose of human labor."

[Karel]

Thanks for your research. You need send it to the Wall Street Journal and let them know of their error, according to this article.

I liked this quote because of this. At the end, the author wrote "The primary image of replacing the shovels of workers with spoons is very memorable. The acerbic humor touches on deeper issues of efficiency, productivity, and the purpose of human labor."

Well, that quote appeared a long time ago, AFAIK. And it sure is an interesting quote. Generating jobs should not be an end in itself.

[mimo_100]

.... Generating jobs should not be an end in itself.

I am not sure I understand what you wrote - could you please fill me in?

[mimo_100]

You become successful by helping others become successful.

[Karel]

.... Generating jobs should not be an end in itself.

I am not sure I understand what you wrote - could you please fill me in?

Nothing special, I meant it in line with the ‘Friedman’ quote: if you want a canal, you try to organize the work efficiently, with the appropriate tools and machines. Forcing the workers to just use shovels creates more jobs, but those jobs then have become the target of the effort, not the canal. Which is not a good thing. The workers know that what they do could have been done faster and better with other tools and machines. Their work is not useful, not efficient, not economical.

BTW, this where most of the jobs Trump promised to bring back went: to machines. He can’t bring those back,not even with a Luddite uprising, as it is just too inefficient and costly.

[billyjoe]

"I saw a Michigan team all year that got tired at the end of games. Michigan was out of gas and the young Bucks looked fresh." Unknown poster at Cleveland.com website

--------------billy

[mimo_100]

Nothing special, I meant it in line with the ‘Friedman’ quote: if you want a canal, you try to organize the work efficiently, with the appropriate tools and machines. Forcing the workers to just use shovels creates more jobs, but those jobs then have become the target of the effort, not the canal. Which is not a good thing. The workers know that what they do could have been done faster and better with other tools and machines. Their work is not useful, not efficient, not economical.

BTW, this where most of the jobs Trump promised to bring back went: to machines. He can’t bring those back,not even with a Luddite uprising, as it is just too inefficient and costly.

The underlying premise of the article I quoted was that the government is much less concerned with efficiencies than private corporations. Governments want to put people to work (reduce unemployment). Period. They are not concerned about how long it takes. Or how much it costs. They want to put money into the system via job programs, (assuming on payday the workers would go spend their money on food, shelter and clothing, not alcohol drugs and tobacco) programs like the CCC in the US in the 1930's.

Recently, in the US, the Fed implemented a quantitative easing policy which lowered interest rates and increased the money supply. The idea was to stimulate the economy by encouraging banks to make more loans.

In my opinion, it would be better to get people off of welfare and unemployment by creating programs where the welfare money plus additional monies would be re-directed toward building something similar to the Great Wall of China, which kept out foreign invaders, or fixing the many bridges and highways in the US that need to be repaired, solar and wind technology, maintaining clean air and water and similar infrastructure projects.

[Louetta]

The underlying premise of the article I quoted was that the government is much less concerned with efficiencies than private corporations. Governments want to put people to work (reduce unemployment). Period. They are not concerned about how long it takes. Or how much it costs. They want to put money into the system via job programs, (assuming on payday the workers would go spend their money on food, shelter and clothing, not alcohol drugs and tobacco) programs like the CCC in the US in the 1930's.

Recently, in the US, the Fed implemented a quantitative easing policy which lowered interest rates and increased the money supply. The idea was to stimulate the economy by encouraging banks to make more loans.

In my opinion, it would be better to get people off of welfare and unemployment by creating programs where the welfare money plus additional monies would be re-directed toward building something similar to the Great Wall of China, which kept out foreign invaders, or fixing the many bridges and highways in the US that need to be repaired, solar and wind technology, maintaining clean air and water and similar infrastructure projects.

You are probably right, but it would be the elected government which would do those things, not the Fed and the elected government did little or nothing for the last eight years. That may now change.

[riverbabe]

R.I.P.

"What got a lot of attention, I think, was the tenuous times we thought we were living in back in the Cold War. I don't think it was about me."

JOHN GLENN, describing the adulation he received as the first American to orbit Earth in 1962.

[billyjoe]

"Old age ain't no place for sissies." Bette Davis

---------billy

[billyjoe]

"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can be stupid with them" Ralph Waldo Emerson

-------------billy

[billyjoe]

" All we have to decide is what to do with the time given us." J.R.R. Tolkien

[riverbabe]

"You can only wear one pair of pants at a time."

CHARLES F. FEENEY, who gave away most of his billions, on the limits of material wealth.