I am on the train into London. The guy opposite me has his badge round his neck already. He works for the NHS and his title is "Business Manager". I can't see the badge of the person opposite him but they are clearly colleagues and I bet she also is some form of "business manager".
The NHS is not a business. It is a service. Its employees have the vocation of helping the nation to stay healthy, and therefore to enable people to live well and business to run.
Maybe that's why they have business managers - is that a new name for doctor? I doubt it.
We recently moved and I was summoned to an NHS health check. Great! Kick the tyres and change the oil type of thing. Never know what they might find.
Actually it's pretty easy to know what they might find: nothing. Why? because the only actual examination the nurse (not doctor) did was to take my blood pressure, which I can do at home with a kit. She asked me if I had brought a urine sample. Sure, I put that in a coffee cup here it is. No listening to the heart, lungs, no looking in the throat, ears, no asking you to cough and not a latex glove in sight!
Tick the box. New person, new healthcheck. This is stealing my taxes. The fortune that I pay to the useless system that employs business managers instead of nurses, is a waste.
I want out. The only way out however is straight through the middle. I hereby vow to make so much money that I don't care about the NHS or any other state organization that wastes my money, my time and my energy.
Wednesday, 18 June 2008
Friday, 13 June 2008
iTunes
iTunes is the perfect product for the age of Bloat.
iTunes, like many software products available via the web, is free to use. Granted you have to buy the content - but the machine is free. Was your iPod free? No.
iTunes enables you to buy a track for 79p. You can't get a coffee or any drink for less than £1. 25. years ago, a single was £1. 25 years ago - that's 20 plus 5 years ago. Think about the relativity of that.
There's more. iTunes sells only electronic data to millions of people. It does not sell a single physical thing. No recycling, no waste, no packaging, no delivery (other than the electricity required to power up your computer and modem, and to charge your iPod).
Also, you can buy a track - any track - just one track. You do not have to buy a whole album. Cool! Typically albums contain junk that you don't want. In some cases it's all junk bar maybe one track (Madonna's Hard Candy would be the perfect example of that).
In our house, we have a strict system for putting CDs back in their case. CDs that go in the car in a wallet have a different system (their cases go in a stack at the back of a drawer). I just hated that "I want to listen to Madeleine Peyroux and ... it's actually in the Sex Pistols case but how the hell would I know that?" syndrome. It caused stress.
With iTunes, however, no problem! I don't know and neither do I care why my wife bought a Jimmy Buffett track but it's on her "cool after work music" playlist (AKA "do not bother" - sorry) while OK I admit I snuck a Girls Aloud song into my "workout" playlist the other day.
When I need a change of train of thought at work, I buy a track or two then mix them up. On the way home on the train, I remember that I have new tunes. I have not encumbered myself in any way. The way the music loads from computer to iPod is so fast, so slick, so easy, it's slimline, thrifty AND cool.
iTunes is the ZeitGeist. When I was at an interview at Google (my 8th of 9) they asked "What is the coolest product around?" to which I was of course meant to say "the iPhone". I did not. I garbled a crap response about iTunes. Wish I had blogged it first. It might have meant I moved to Zurich.
iTunes is also collaboration. It's "share my songs and mix them up". It's old records and something you just heard on the radio for fun like the Ting Tings, you probably don't want it forever but for 79p who cares?
Economics topic of today: How are Primark and iTunes similar and different? My answer tomorrow.
iTunes, like many software products available via the web, is free to use. Granted you have to buy the content - but the machine is free. Was your iPod free? No.
iTunes enables you to buy a track for 79p. You can't get a coffee or any drink for less than £1. 25. years ago, a single was £1. 25 years ago - that's 20 plus 5 years ago. Think about the relativity of that.
There's more. iTunes sells only electronic data to millions of people. It does not sell a single physical thing. No recycling, no waste, no packaging, no delivery (other than the electricity required to power up your computer and modem, and to charge your iPod).
Also, you can buy a track - any track - just one track. You do not have to buy a whole album. Cool! Typically albums contain junk that you don't want. In some cases it's all junk bar maybe one track (Madonna's Hard Candy would be the perfect example of that).
In our house, we have a strict system for putting CDs back in their case. CDs that go in the car in a wallet have a different system (their cases go in a stack at the back of a drawer). I just hated that "I want to listen to Madeleine Peyroux and ... it's actually in the Sex Pistols case but how the hell would I know that?" syndrome. It caused stress.
With iTunes, however, no problem! I don't know and neither do I care why my wife bought a Jimmy Buffett track but it's on her "cool after work music" playlist (AKA "do not bother" - sorry) while OK I admit I snuck a Girls Aloud song into my "workout" playlist the other day.
When I need a change of train of thought at work, I buy a track or two then mix them up. On the way home on the train, I remember that I have new tunes. I have not encumbered myself in any way. The way the music loads from computer to iPod is so fast, so slick, so easy, it's slimline, thrifty AND cool.
iTunes is the ZeitGeist. When I was at an interview at Google (my 8th of 9) they asked "What is the coolest product around?" to which I was of course meant to say "the iPhone". I did not. I garbled a crap response about iTunes. Wish I had blogged it first. It might have meant I moved to Zurich.
iTunes is also collaboration. It's "share my songs and mix them up". It's old records and something you just heard on the radio for fun like the Ting Tings, you probably don't want it forever but for 79p who cares?
Economics topic of today: How are Primark and iTunes similar and different? My answer tomorrow.
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Bloat
Critical things in the world are shrinking away. Food is short. Fuel is short (in Scotland at least). Credit is tight. Housing sales are down. So that's gas, food and lodging - and the money needed to pay for them - on the way down.
Remember or ever see Dad's Army? While writing this I can hear the Scottish guy "we're doomed! we're doomed!". I'm sure we're not. We're cleverer than that. The home guard jokes are good even now.
"Bloat" refers to everything that is done to even slight excess, which has been the norm in the last 10-15 years. Even before that, we had the 80s, with its pints of champagne, shoulder pads and Gordon Gekko. I am no great economist but since the 70s, we have largely, in the West, been in Bloat.
Personally, I hate Bloat. I hate its opposite - dearth - just as much. But just below Bloat there is Adequacy and just below that, Thrift. Float somewhere between thrift and adequacy and everything will go swimmingly.
Think about your day today. Where have you seen bloat? That's easy if you've been to any supermarket. Petrol station shops are my favourite - every type of crap you never needed plus vastly overpriced muffins matched only by their calorific value. Retail outlets of any kind especially low cost ones like Primark - brilliant business models but why do people need to load up on cheap t-shirts that often?
I recently realized that I needed to shed some pounds. (My excuse: it goes on all over and i can wear all my clothes so it takes a while to notice. Say what you like). I realized that another very lame excuse - not even an excuse, more of an observation - is that fat is the new normal. In the UK, look around. How many people over 40 are not also overweight? Bloat.
Debt is a form of bloat. It represents the inches on your waistline, the food in your vast "American fridge", your Caribbean cruise, your car. Our car is so old that my wife has to park it far away from business events in case anyone should realize its hers. We could bloat up on an Aston Martin today.
What stops me from doing so? Is it better to live for now or be thrifty? Does it matter that you have too much stuff - just stuff - everywhere? Clothes, books, houses, cars, bottles of wine, credit cards, direct debits, holidays, ideas even?
I think the answer is that Bloat equals Stress. Think about it. Are we more stressed now than say 10 years ago? I challenge anyone - unless they have retired on a nice income from employment or cool deals or luck - who says that they are less stressed now than in the past. Why? BLOAT! Why does a dog....? Because it can. Why do I (a) rack up activities for my kids all the time? (b) endlessly analyze financial management options (c) consider buying property abroad obsessively (d) sometimes shop at Asda but also at Waitrose .... Because I am a Bloat baby.
We are relatively hungry after all. The baby boomers and young Gen Xers were brought up by parents who had lived through a long world war, rations, poverty and lack. Suddenly, credit cards, the Internet, and cheap travel - just a few examples - landed in our laps. Phwoah! Go for it! We are like kids with rickets in a candy store that will never close. Take a flight from Paris to any UK airport on an airline that does Eurodisney deals. Bet you my house that you will be surrounded by exhausted, overweight parents with exhausted, overweight children, crippled under the burden of retail and experiential bloat from the mere few days they have just spent in that rainy paradise of tack in suburbia somewhere.
The next big thing is thrift, in my view. Mend don't spend. Grow your own. Live smaller. Go by bike. However you translate it, you will have to downbloat, if only temporarily.
Today, alone, a good friend told me of visiting a friend in hospital. Attempted suicide because his property company has collapsed due to no further credit. Another friend called from her car on the way to picking up insolvency papers for a guy who lives in Monaco.
The correction of bloat is upon us. Get on board. It's fun to sew, they say. The only thing that will always be free is information. So if you can't pay, blog.
Remember or ever see Dad's Army? While writing this I can hear the Scottish guy "we're doomed! we're doomed!". I'm sure we're not. We're cleverer than that. The home guard jokes are good even now.
"Bloat" refers to everything that is done to even slight excess, which has been the norm in the last 10-15 years. Even before that, we had the 80s, with its pints of champagne, shoulder pads and Gordon Gekko. I am no great economist but since the 70s, we have largely, in the West, been in Bloat.
Personally, I hate Bloat. I hate its opposite - dearth - just as much. But just below Bloat there is Adequacy and just below that, Thrift. Float somewhere between thrift and adequacy and everything will go swimmingly.
Think about your day today. Where have you seen bloat? That's easy if you've been to any supermarket. Petrol station shops are my favourite - every type of crap you never needed plus vastly overpriced muffins matched only by their calorific value. Retail outlets of any kind especially low cost ones like Primark - brilliant business models but why do people need to load up on cheap t-shirts that often?
I recently realized that I needed to shed some pounds. (My excuse: it goes on all over and i can wear all my clothes so it takes a while to notice. Say what you like). I realized that another very lame excuse - not even an excuse, more of an observation - is that fat is the new normal. In the UK, look around. How many people over 40 are not also overweight? Bloat.
Debt is a form of bloat. It represents the inches on your waistline, the food in your vast "American fridge", your Caribbean cruise, your car. Our car is so old that my wife has to park it far away from business events in case anyone should realize its hers. We could bloat up on an Aston Martin today.
What stops me from doing so? Is it better to live for now or be thrifty? Does it matter that you have too much stuff - just stuff - everywhere? Clothes, books, houses, cars, bottles of wine, credit cards, direct debits, holidays, ideas even?
I think the answer is that Bloat equals Stress. Think about it. Are we more stressed now than say 10 years ago? I challenge anyone - unless they have retired on a nice income from employment or cool deals or luck - who says that they are less stressed now than in the past. Why? BLOAT! Why does a dog....? Because it can. Why do I (a) rack up activities for my kids all the time? (b) endlessly analyze financial management options (c) consider buying property abroad obsessively (d) sometimes shop at Asda but also at Waitrose .... Because I am a Bloat baby.
We are relatively hungry after all. The baby boomers and young Gen Xers were brought up by parents who had lived through a long world war, rations, poverty and lack. Suddenly, credit cards, the Internet, and cheap travel - just a few examples - landed in our laps. Phwoah! Go for it! We are like kids with rickets in a candy store that will never close. Take a flight from Paris to any UK airport on an airline that does Eurodisney deals. Bet you my house that you will be surrounded by exhausted, overweight parents with exhausted, overweight children, crippled under the burden of retail and experiential bloat from the mere few days they have just spent in that rainy paradise of tack in suburbia somewhere.
The next big thing is thrift, in my view. Mend don't spend. Grow your own. Live smaller. Go by bike. However you translate it, you will have to downbloat, if only temporarily.
Today, alone, a good friend told me of visiting a friend in hospital. Attempted suicide because his property company has collapsed due to no further credit. Another friend called from her car on the way to picking up insolvency papers for a guy who lives in Monaco.
The correction of bloat is upon us. Get on board. It's fun to sew, they say. The only thing that will always be free is information. So if you can't pay, blog.
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