Paul Graham points out that big company checks on purchasing
usually have costs, such as purchasing checks increase the costs of
purchased items because the vendors have to factor in their costs
of passing the checks.
Such things happen constantly to the biggest organizations of all,
governments. But checks instituted by governments can cause much worse
problems than merely overpaying. Checks instituted by governments can
cripple a country’s whole economy. Up till about 1400, China was richer
and more technologically advanced than Europe. One reason Europe pulled
ahead was that the Chinese government restricted long trading voyages. So
it was left to the Europeans to explore and eventually to dominate the
rest of the world, including China.
—
The Other Half of “Artists Ship”,
by Paul Graham,
November 2008
I would say western governments (especially the U.S.) subsidizing
petroleum production and not renewable energy is one of the biggest
source of current world economic, political, and military problems.
Of course, lack of checks can also have adverse effects as we’ve
just seen with the fancy derivatives the shadow banking system
sold in a pyramid scheme throughout the world.
It’s like there should be a balance on checks.
Which I suppose is Graham’s point: without taking into account
the costs of checks (and I would argue also the risks of
not
having checks), how can you strike such a balance?
He doesn’t neglect to apply his hypothesis to SOX:
Continue reading →
At a meeting on a completely different subject, I was interviewed
about
SpamRankings.net.
Here's
the audio,
and here's the blurb they supplied:
seminal books about networking prior to the commercialization of the Internet. He co-founded the first Internet consulting firm in Texas (TIC) in 1986, and co-founded one of the first ISPs in Austin (Zilker Internet Park, since sold to Jump Point). He was a founder of TISPA, the Texas ISP Association. Quarterman was born and raised in Lowndes County, where he married his wife Gretchen. They live on the same land where he grew up, and participate in local community and government.
Quarterman took some time during Georgia River Network's Weekend for Rivers to speak with the Nonprofit Snapshot about spam-mapping and small town politics.
WWALS is an advocacy organization working for watershed conservation of the Willacoochee, Withlacoochee, Alapaha, and Little River Systems watershed in south Georgia and north Florida through awareness, environmental monitoring, and citizen advocacy.
