Doing My Part, Are You?

[don]

I bought one of my daily papers yesterday at the news stand...bookstore.... and the price had jumped from $1.25 to $1.50. Now in the old days this would appear to be a 20% bump in price but now, thanks to Chris Martensen, I know I'm doing my part to ward off a recession.

Through the magic of hedonics, it's assumed I no longer buy a paper. Instead, I read the paper online, costing me nothing. (How good can it get) Plus the paper is more efficient. With a click of the mouse I can go directly to a section of the paper of my choice. No more time consuming turning of pages. (And that ink on the fingers problem. Forget about it.)

The bottom line? I'm way ahead, putting a serious dent in inflation. (I only hope Mish doesn't hear about this one) And I've done my part for the GDP. Who can put a number on that new-found efficiency? Okay, the government can. But what are we talking about? Millions of papers. It's got to be billions of $$$.

[metalman]

Re: Doing My Part, Are You?

I bought one of my daily papers yesterday at the news stand...bookstore.... and the price had jumped from $1.25 to $1.50. Now in the old days this would appear to be a 20% bump in price but now, thanks to Chris Martensen, I know I'm doing my part to ward off a recession.

Through the magic of hedonics, it's assumed I no longer buy a paper. Instead, I read the paper online, costing me nothing. (How good can it get) Plus the paper is more efficient. With a click of the mouse I can go directly to a section of the paper of my choice. No more time consuming turning of pages. (And that ink on the fingers problem. Forget about it.)

The bottom line? I'm way ahead, putting a serious dent in inflation. (I only hope Mish doesn't hear about this one) And I've done my part for the GDP. Who can put a number on that new-found efficiency? Okay, the government can. But what are we talking about? Millions of papers. It's got to be billions of $$$.

newspapers are a special case. those guys are all going out of business. long before rising newsprint and transport costs started to beat their balance sheets, craig's list and ebay took away a big source of revenue, classified ads.

[c1ue]

Re: Doing My Part, Are You?

Yeah, and a lot of the reason for the newspapers losing it is due to the concentration of news outlets owned by a few large companies - which likely is the cause for the reduction in quality.

Why bother reading any given newspaper when the same identical information is available everywhere, including the internet?

At some point there will hopefully be a backlash where content may again show itself to be of use.

[santafe2]

Re: Doing My Part, Are You?

I bought one of my daily papers yesterday at the news stand...bookstore.... and the price had jumped from $1.25 to $1.50. Now in the old days this would appear to be a 20% bump in price but now, thanks to Chris Martensen, I know I'm doing my part to ward off a recession.

Through the magic of hedonics, it's assumed I no longer buy a paper. Instead, I read the paper online, costing me nothing. (How good can it get) Plus the paper is more efficient. With a click of the mouse I can go directly to a section of the paper of my choice. No more time consuming turning of pages. (And that ink on the fingers problem. Forget about it.)

The bottom line? I'm way ahead, putting a serious dent in inflation. (I only hope Mish doesn't hear about this one) And I've done my part for the GDP. Who can put a number on that new-found efficiency? Okay, the government can. But what are we talking about? Millions of papers. It's got to be billions of $$$.

Through the magical elixir of hedonics, my iTulip subscription has actually paid for my computer and my Internet connection fees. Since all Americans could potentially have a subscription to iTulip, it has done the same for every computer owner in the country. That has to contribute $100B to the GDP and lower inflation by at least a point.