Economic Theory 101

[rdmaughan]

 The point of a trade is to leave both parties better off afterwards.  Please note, not feeling better or thinking they are better off but actually better off.  Of course this is dependent on the parties knowing what is good for them, if you buy lottery tickets and don't win anything on them then you are not better off but that is as much your

Comments

[filkerdave]

Well worded.

Modern life could not exist without trade; if we did not have trade, then I would be required to create the computer that I use from first principles (heck, my clothes, my glasses, my toothbrush...)

[rdmaughan]

I love the concept of open source software but I do need a computer to run it on. Does anyone make an ethically sources router or switch?

[keristor]

There is "open source" hardware, but few people are qualified (or have the equipment" to make it. Fabricating chips (of the silicon variety) is not something which can be done at home or for a budget of less than a year's salary. The early ARM designs are coming out of patent soon and there are plans for a group to fabricate them (i.e. pay professional fabricators to make them) for "OS" hardware

[the_magician]

There was an attempt to whip up a boycott of Foxconn after the suicide of the Chinese chap who lost an iPhone prototype and was, allegedly, beaten by the Foxconn security chief ...

... it was pointed out that there are few devices in the computer world that are guaranteed not to contain *any* Foxconn parts, so to be safe you'd have to buy no electronic kit.

And I get paid to document code that is going into the Symbian Foundation which will be available "Open Source" (I have to put quotes, because I know there are all sorts of varieties of licence around and I can't be sure that what the Foundation is promising will meet the reader's definition!) so to a certain extent I'm being paid to do Open Source work.

[stevieannie]

Did you, by any chance, happen to watch "The Future of Food" last night?

I did, and had similar rants afterwards...

[rdmaughan]

No, which channel was it on? If it was the BBC I can use iplayer to raise my blood pressure later.

[stevieannie]

BBC2 - it was focussing on the production of food and the importance of import/exports. It was a good piece of reporting, but some of the undertones made my teeth squeak.

Whilst I'm all for self-reliance, the picture just isn't as simple as that at the moment.

[grey_lady]

And I'm all in favour of buying locally-produced stuff whenever possible but I'm really not in a hurry to give up tea or coffee -- or try to grow it myself! :)

[armb]

> if you buy lottery tickets and don't win anything on them then you are not better off

[rdmaughan]

Good point. I suppose a better example would have been buying cigarettes in the days when the tobacco companies knew that cigarettes were bad for your health but were suppressing the research.

[armb]

And even now that tobacco companies have to put "this product can kill you" on the box, I think "does make you feel better, but only because it's temporarily easing the withdrawal pains of your addiction" is a special case.

If you are spending money you really need for food or shelter on cigarettes, or lottery tickets, or crack cocaine, or meths to drink, it's hard to persuade an outside observer that you will be better off in the long term as a result, even if you were fully informed at the point of the trade.

Whether its immoral for a vendor to take advantage of a less desperate cigarette buyer valuing their long term health less than we might consider rational is more dubious.

[filkerdave]

There's also a strong social component to tobacco, which may add into it.

(There're some people here in the US who've started growing their own tobacco again, interestingly)