Friday, January 26, 2007

Modern Economics

Tim Haab finds new hope for hydrogen fuel with developments in Australia. His only problem comes in the concentration on small units. I picture a closed power system for vehicles carrying about 10 gallons of pure water in source tank, a hydrogen holding tank, an electrolyser, and a Drop-In Battery source–where placement automatically makes the connection with the Power unit. Commercial Solar Power stations would own the batteries and rent them Charged for an appropriate fee. These Power stations would utilize a combination of Solar cells and Magnifiers of Sunlight to produce Power. Burned hydrogen would collect as water in the water tank. The Electrolyser would work continually until the hydrogen tank was full. Battery Charge would be considered sufficient with 300 miles per Car, and 75 miles for a Semi-Trailer. Insistence on an integral Battery system will defeat any Electric or Hybrid vehicle design. Battery replacement must consume less than 3 minutes of time, and Charge levels must be uniform across stations.

Ambitious Bloggers should read this article by Arnold Kling. It highlights the fact that blogging is a Sensation-Junkie industry, where one has to capture the interest of the Readers immediately. Does this detract from blogging? I do not think it does. Readers search for Bloggers whose words they can trust and understand, and return to the same Blogs because they receive a level of competence fit for themselves. Does this sound patronizing–it should not; Bloggers are themselves Readers, and the gist of their message changes to conform to basic tenets that flow across all the Blogs. Arnold brought in the subject of citations and links, but Bloggers must also deal with contrary opinions–if they expect to keep their Readership. One has to ask, like Arnold, if academia suffers from a bias on the Internet. I doubt it seriously! Academics present the most reasoned arguments, which other Bloggers must respond to, and present an academic style which Bloggers must aspire to or be considered inept. I think the flow of ideas is good for All.

Don Boudreaux again presents an attack on Minimum Wage legislation which is a non-Contender. He cites France, where Minimum Wages is a lot closer to the Average Wage than is the fact in the United States. He states that married French women have far less labor participation than American wives; this ignores the statement by most young American wives that they would stay home and take care of their children, if they could afford it. It also ignores the possibility that the higher Wages in France affords young French wives and mothers a right to a traditional household. His quote of the unemployed levels among French residence Muslims as being near 40% forgets the unemployment levels of intercity Black and Hispanic youth. Why do Economists accept and approve of all Cost increases to Restaurants except Pay Hikes for already disadvantaged Youth? lgl

1 comment:

Don Boudreaux said...

I'm flattered that you mistake me for Gary Becker and Richard Posner.

That said, I endorse their use of that statistic.

Don Boudreaux