Scott Adams's Blog, page 386

Best Prank Ever

I assume that most of you have heard about the so-called Ass Bomber. He was a terrorist who tried to kill a Saudi Deputy Interior Minister by putting a bomb up his ass and detonating it when they met. Unfortunately for the terrorist, the bomb was only big enough to kill the Ass Bomber himself.

http://www.stratfor.com/weekly/20090902_aqap_paradigm_shifts_and_lessons_learned

This raises many interesting questions. At the top of my list: Why did the Ass Bomber think that killing the Deputy Inte...

Redistribution of Wealth

I hear a lot of chatter about the rich getting richer. That sort of talk is a generalization of course, since obviously there are rich people who get poorer, some go bankrupt, and a few do the full Madoff. But as generalizations go, it's true enough.

I wonder how people would feel if instead of saying "the rich are getting richer" we said "the smart are getting richer." Would it be just as true, as far as generalizations go, and would it make you feel the same when you heard it?

Capitalism rewa...

Medical Cost Trend

In response to my math question from yesterday, some of you wisely pointed out that medical insurance costs have to plateau at the point where they become literally unaffordable.

This made me wonder about the trajectory of medical expenses. On one hand, you can imagine that technology will lower the cost of routine medical treatment. The cost of existing drugs will drop as they go off patent protection. And maybe gene therapy will, in time, end up being inexpensive relative to traditional m...

Health Math

Here's a little math problem. Let's see who can solve it first. The question is this: How much money would you need to give to a 21-year old today, in a lump sum, so he can invest it and pay for his lifetime of healthcare?

Your assumptions are as follows:

-        Life expectancy: 85

-        Health insurance currently costs $6,000 per year

-        Healthcare costs rise 10% per year

-        Investment income averages 4% per year after taxes

-        You can spend your principle too, so...

China is Doomed

Over the past 20 years or so, most of China's leaders have been engineers. I'm embarrassed to say that I was not aware of this until recently. Suddenly, everything makes sense.

For years I have marveled at the fact that the Chinese government could be so practical. They didn't seem bogged down by the superstitions and sideshow passions that you so often see in other governments. China's leaders make decisions like engineers. For example, every time I hear someone yapping about how China harves...

HealthCare Thought Experiment

Before you complain that I'm a socialist who wants to take away your freedoms and your money, what follows is just a thought experiment. I start with the premise that the government of the United States, against all odds, declares universal healthcare a basic right.

Obviously no one has figured out how to pay for universal healthcare in a way that society can swallow. So today's thought experiment imagines that ALL options are on the table except raising taxes, just to make this interestin...

Baby Boomer ETF

I saw an article recently about states that have favorable taxation for retired people. I wonder if buying first-floor condos in those states would be a good investment, since demand will be rising.

And I wonder what other types of investments make sense as the baby boomers retire in numbers. Let's ignore the obvious ones, such as the companies who make rest homes, funeral homes, pharmaceuticals, canes, walkers, and Depend undergarments. I'm looking for the next level of cleverness. That's wha...

Hypnosis for World Peace

I was listening to the translated speech of Iranian President Ahmadinejad at the U.N. and was struck by how much he sounded like Gandhi, or Jesus, or Martin Luther King Jr. His words were all about peace and love and respect and humanity and blah, blah, blah.

In today's post we won't discuss whether he meant any of those things or he's really Hitler in a leisure suit. What fascinates me is the psychology of the situation. Researchers know that when someone commits to a position publicly, and ...

Healthcare

I'm fascinated by the debate over fixing/expanding the healthcare system in the United States. The issue is so complex that people understandably fall back on basic philosophies of the free market system to reach an opinion. For example, if you think the government tends to screw up everything it touches, and the free market does a good job, you might come down on the side of less government involvement in the healthcare system. But that view ignores the confusopoly effect.

A confusopoly - a t...

As regular readers know, I wonder if the economy is being...

As regular readers know, I wonder if the economy is being manipulated by a small group of people who make vast fortunes by investing ahead of the swings. And if there isn't any major manipulation happening, the economy certainly acts that way.

You might have noticed that there are times, such as now, when the stock market is marching straight up and there is a suspicious lack of bad news. Oh, don't get me wrong - there is plenty of bad news out there if the media wants to focus on it. But for ...