Comments on: Kathleen Madigan

By: Levelheadsteve

Levelheadsteve — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:32:58 +0000

Bryan was not right. Do you really think all gardeners and landscaping companies would take less profit if leaf blowers are banned? Do you really think that’s how business works? They will definitely pass the additional cost onto customers. Wake up.

By: Joey

Joey — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 13:56:12 +0000

Stephanie needs to drop one of her three names and become a little less saturated with entitlement.

By: Carl J. L.

Carl J. L. — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:57:07 +0000

There’s a good episode on lie detector tests on Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit” Basically, it’s just another chance for interrogators to throw some bullshit at you and make accusations. There was an episode on “Mythbusters” about techniques for beating various tests including MRI, one out of the 3 were able to beat them.

By: Carl J. L.

Carl J. L. — Tue, 25 Oct 2011 19:52:48 +0000

Kathleen Madigan is my favorite female comic. Leaf blowers suck big time. Would it be so bad for workers to pick up a rake? Must everything be automated, polluting and waste gas? A lie detector you’re describing won’t work; the brain’s wiring is peculiar to each individual, and not everyone even knows when they’re lying. Amanda Knox is 100% innocent, the victim of a dishonest prosecutor with a penchant for flights of fantasy concerning satanism and sex. Her main fault is in not showing more sympathy and concern after the murder.

By: Dola

Dola — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 22:41:47 +0000

I don’t want any kids – and that does not mean I am wrong in the noggin’. c’mon! ACE – you were just like me before you made a bag o money.

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:32:19 +0000

shit! I put P and Q on the wrong axis…details….all of the principles and shifts were right, but on the wrong axses

By: Matt

Matt — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 16:23:21 +0000

I really wish the episode would have discussed leaf blowing regulation more. Adam’s intuition was right. I actually find that a lot of people who worked in the trades have a better intuitive knowledge of economics than people who have never worked for themselves. This partly describes the coalition of rural America and wealthy business America. Economics is not easy to discuss and it gets people all twisted up in their thinking, but that is exactly why it is important to discuss.

This “leaf blowing regulation” is a great example that allows us to discuss very directly the principles of supply and demand as they relate to costs. NOTE: there is a negative externality issue with noise, but bryan and adam argued over the price of the services. So, for now I am going to ignore the noise issue and just purely discuss the price of lawn services.

here is a supply and demand chart of the regulation – http://i.imgur.com/A0Qh6.png
This is the vanilla supply and demand. Bryan was either arguing for a supply curve that is straight up and down. A “buyer’s market” he was saying.

Understanding that supply curve is important. What it means is the number of people who are willing to provide the service at the differing price levels. That is why is slopes up and to the right. At large prices, many people are willing to offer the service. By saying that the supply curve is perfectly horizontal. So by saying this, he is saying that there are no people outside of the leaf cleaning up services who would be willing to get in if it was lucrative, and that the people who are in the leaf services business wouldn’t find something else to do if it didn’t make them any money. Normally with horizontal supply curves we are talking about enormously capital intensive industries like oil, where the marginal costs are low and the small shifts on the margin do not force people to exit the business or new entrants to hop in the when the prices are high.

Leaf cleaning services are the exact opposite of the oil industry. That is why i found this example so funny. There are tons of possible entrants (think all of the construction workers who are out of work). all they would need is a couple rakes, leaf blowers, and a truck (which they already have). And on the other end of the equation, you have people who are just making wages. Its not like all of the landscaping companies are making millions. They are just getting by, and if they couldn’t get by raking leaves, they would be working in a factory, working in a kitchen, doing home repairs, or something else. If anything I believe the supply curve is pretty vertical and small shifts in the prices would make price shift quickly.

here is a graph of a horizontal supply curve. – http://i.imgur.com/xH11R.png

Anyway, it is always helpful to think of these things in terms of supply and demand, unfortunately, a lot of people get really lost and don’t have a great mental model of how these things work.

By: John

John — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 07:36:42 +0000

Your lie detector test idea won’t ever work.
We can’t tell if someone is lying. We are so far away from that.
However, someone who lost the use of one of their eyes installed a web camera in their glass eye so they could re-watch life experiences. Some variation of the sort is possible.

By: John

John — Sat, 15 Oct 2011 07:30:17 +0000

Adam: Please, please, please!!!
Do some research on lie detector tests. You are gravely uniformed. All they measure is three things: 1.) heart rate 2.) blood pressure 3.) body conductivity (if you’re sweating). They are very very far from being scientifically accurate. The only thing they measure is if you’re nervous or not. Good people fail them all the time, and sociopaths pass them all the time. Plus, if you clench your anus during the baseline, it will raise your blood pressure above normal. Then when you answer the questions there is no way to fail the test. Penn & Teller: Bullsh*t did a bit on it. Check it out.

By: Yossarian

Yossarian — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 08:23:38 +0000

Bring Kathleen back.