Abdicating Responsibility

When people choose to let others make their decisions for them, they have to live by the decisions of others.  Reflect on this: People told government to "do something" about kids eating unhealthy food.  Government decides that the best way to help kids eat healthy is to prohibit food manufacturers from advertising unhealthy foods to kids. 

As a result, among other things, you will no longer see Ballpark Franks advertised at sporting events.  

Presentation to Titan Society

Tonight I am presenting to the Titan Society.  Among other topics, we will be discussing the contents of this column.   From Alhambra Associates, a financial consulting firm, the column details all actions by the BHO administration in a one week period of time that would give pause to business. 

Research by Crowd (of gamers)

The "Wisdom of Crowds" is an economic idea that has been around for a while.  Basically the idea that a large group of people will possess many little bits of information that, if properly assembled, can solve even very complex and difficult problems.  The trick is getting the holders of the information to assemble it.  You can have a contest (guess the weight of a steer at the fair), allow people to "invest" their knowledge (political betting markets), or you can CREATE A GAME. 

Pretty cool.  The potential of using the creative and problem solving skills of diverse people, especially if they don't know they are solving problems is fairly incredible. 

What other problems could we solve? 

White House vs. Reality

Will companies keep their employer-provided health care as the health care reform act take full effect? Will your employer?  A new survey suggests that many businesses will drop their coverage - a suggestion strenuously denied by the WH.  Look though at the sources of the WH's denial; each one is a fairly partisan politically inclined think-tank, whereas the original study comes from a professional HR support services company.  The profitability of a HR service company depends on its ability to predict such things accurately.