tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post115854080989117683..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: There Is No SystemAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-38152513806238597042008-07-22T19:08:00.000-04:002008-07-22T19:08:00.000-04:00class factotum - as this was a repost from two yea...class factotum - as this was a repost from two years ago, jw has long since left the building. As I recall, he is a Canadian who was on the short end of a custody dispute he felt was handled very badly. He was big into the Father's Rights movement there, I think. That may give you some perspective where he is coming from. I think you would actually find a great many places of agreement with him.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-52416647500955085682008-07-22T08:31:00.000-04:002008-07-22T08:31:00.000-04:00"The blame for fatherlessness goes to: society, fa..."The blame for fatherlessness goes to: society, fathers, mothers, the church, the government, the press and too many more to simply list."<BR/><BR/>Please explain why the government, other than paying women to have children out of wedlock, which still shouldn't keep a guy from sticking around to raise his kid, but should just keep him from marrying the mother, is responsible for fatherlessness. Or the church. Or the press. Or society. <BR/><BR/>Then explain how my being overweight is also everyone else's fault but mine.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1159484671534519632006-09-28T19:04:00.000-04:002006-09-28T19:04:00.000-04:00plod...Studying linguistics, even as an avocation,...plod...<BR/><BR/>Studying linguistics, even as an avocation, is a great object lesson in how little can be controlled, and how solutions spontaneously arise.Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1158978700275900082006-09-22T22:31:00.000-04:002006-09-22T22:31:00.000-04:00As a fellow employee of the State of New Hampshire...As a fellow employee of the State of New Hampshire, we both see situations on a regular basis where you have people who identify problems and attempt to fix them. We had one at the Department of Safety recently. It even made the newspapers. It seems that some highly paid consultant determined that a high percentage of callers to the Division of Motor Vehicles were getting busy signals or no answer. Solution? Create a phone bank, staff it with numerous people whose only fuction is to answer the phone. One problem. The term "answer" is a misnomer. They don't know any answers. So now the phone gets "answered" but the person who answers the phone then has to figure out where to transfer the calls to get the caller an answer. These are the same people whose lines were previously not answered or busy because they are trying to provide answers to other callers. So, the state is spending an additional $150,000 annually, people are no longer getting busy signals, but answers are still hard to come by. It is not unlike when they widened I93 to 3 lanes from just south of Manchester to just south of Concord. The bottleneck is now in Concord where the 3 lines funnel down to 2 lanes. But I guess people "feel" better when there calls are answered instead of getting a busy signal.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1158629267591634152006-09-18T21:27:00.000-04:002006-09-18T21:27:00.000-04:00Agreed, akafred, and perhaps I didn't make the poi...Agreed, akafred, and perhaps I didn't make the point well. The average seminarian thinks that Fair Trade is a modification of the system, and a good one. They are still in a systems mentality.<BR/><BR/>I am hopeful that subsystems can actually fix systems by taking them over, as with the cell phones. I don't rule out that some clever leapfrog over the system could solve much of the Guatemalan coffee-grower's problems as well.<BR/><BR/>I would sy that solving an identified problem is more likely to do good than trying to "fix the system."Assistant Village Idiothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1158627053515854172006-09-18T20:50:00.000-04:002006-09-18T20:50:00.000-04:00"In doing so, we reward a random group of people i..."In doing so, we reward a random group of people in Central America ...But the cooperatives are as likely to be corrupt as the previous system...That's what you get when you look for systemic solutions.<BR/><BR/>OK, I get it that you're peeved at this whipper-snapper seminarian, but I don't see some of your arguments regarding systems. In your Fair Trade example I would argue that you get the same (corrupt) result because you DIDN'T have a system. You chose a "random group of people." A system would have evaluated the desired end point (good, honest cooperatives) and would have put in place screening mechanisms to produce that outcome (sort out the good, honest coffee growers from the corrupt ones and only let the good, honest ones join). Even if you say "We looked and there are no good, honest coffee growers." Well, your systematic sorting and evaluation demonstrated that fact and would cause you to abandon the idea of a Fair Trade Cooperative that could work OK AND be true to its name. You would alter your goal, your targeted end point, or give it up as unattainable.<BR/><BR/>As far as the Romania cell phones, I would argue that this is the market system at its very best. Some times a market "system" seems chaotic but it is really the sovereignty-of-consumers at work. "We consumers like cell phones. We want cell phones. You must find a way to deliver them." A system is born to produce the desired results.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-1158601945162196182006-09-18T13:52:00.000-04:002006-09-18T13:52:00.000-04:00Intriuing perspective.At the least, the American e...Intriuing perspective.<BR/><BR/>At the least, the American economic "system" is so unstructured that it is easily amenable to change and innovation such as the much hated WalMart's approach to merchandising.<BR/><BR/>Your cellphone story reminds be of Air America. Conservative talk radio grew out of listener interest. Air America was created by rich liberals trying to spread their message. Unfortunately for them, all those listeners who chose to listen to conservative talk show hosts continued to choose to listen to conservative talk show hosts. You can't create an audience where there is no interest.DADvocatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04621021178600799126noreply@blogger.com