OT ish incandescent bulb ban

[M]

Following up to Man at B&Q

thats quite unusual, after all its not really much use anymore is it? Other than as a "them and us" tool. I assume Oxbridge dont require it any more?

[The Natural Philosopher]

well actually no.

for example its fairly easy to work out what it costs to police, arrest, convict and imprison someone, and add in the total insurance costs for thefts and property damage and come up with the social cost of crime..

Its an interesting one, because, using figures someone else provided, I worked out that it would be cheaper in the USA to give every criminal $20,000 a year to *not* commit crime.

There is an even more pertinent case to the legalization of all drugs: The cost in terms of crimes committed, money in the bad boys hands, and the general policing of it all, is massive. Not to mention the medical costs of treating people who get bad stuff.

If it were all on prescription for the class whatevers, and basically just not criminal for the less nasty stuff, we would be a lot richer as a nation, and a lot more crime free.

Then spend the money on the REAL facts about it, decent rehab clinics, and far less people would bother with it..

Theres a more hard to quantify but definite cost associated with pollution for example, as well.

These are not easy sums, but they are doable. Not by anyone in this government though. They don't do sums do they? Couldn't see the point at their secondary moderns school. Maths is for them, not us ;-)

[The Natural Philosopher]

So I did, but there is nothing you can invest in since last summer, that has not seen the bottom fall out of it.

And leaving it in the bank isn't much of an option either.

Not with zero rate interest policies.

Feel free to scoff. thats the result of 40 years of bloody hard slog, paying top rate taxes and getting almost nothing back.

[M]

Following up to The Natural Philosopher

its pretty obvious prohibition does not work, it didnt work for alcohol, but it seems to be impossible for most people to understand giving criminals the opportunity to make millions isnt a good idea. Not to mention that enforcing the law effectively proves impossible.

[Man at B&Q]

Didn't a lot of them actually go to very good schools, private in some cases? They certainly send their kids to them. It's the hypocricy in trying to pull the drawbridge up after them that makes me sick.

MBQ

[M]

Following up to Man at B&Q

are they trying to stop private schools? Or are they trying to improve public schools. I don't think a politician who is attempting to improve state education should sacrifice their children getting the best they can, just because they are trying to improve the general lot. However, I suspect that if politicians were not allowed to use non state facilities, there would be pretty quick improvement in them.

[M]

Following up to Huge

excellent, I made the mistake of not plonking you globally, easily corrected

[Huge]

Good point. OK, then, "social costs" are almost entirely made up.

Impossible to quantify, more like.

Mostly, they aren't. They nearly always come down to "this view is worth £22M" or "this noise causes £30M of damage", which are impossible to objectively quantify, or "the costs of global warming are ...." which in my case is zero, since I don't believe in anthropogenic global warming.

Quite so.

[Mike]

You suppose wrong as any examination of the salary scales would show.

[Andy Champ]

I probably wouldn't. They're expensive.

For efficiency of course you want to feed your heatpump from the output of your personal CHP system. And the capital cost will be...

All the Govt. need to do is put up the cost of fuel. Oh look, that causes civil unrest - can't have that, put it back down...

Andy

[Tony Bryer]

If you'd put your money into Australian dollars and cashed them back into sterling now, you'd be seeing a near 10% gain. If you'd got your timing right, 30%

[The Natural Philosopher]

No, just hard, impossible to do to the last penny, but that isn't the point.

For example, would you say on balance, that filtered, chlorinated typhoid and cholera free water supplies were a net cost, or benefit, to the nation?

well you can at lest come up with 'this activity costs tthe nation between £1M and £100M, but to pay off those who do it would cost £100k'

Or teh other way around.

It not blistering accuracy you want, its ballpark figures that show you where to apply deeper research, and where to simply not bother.

This bulb thing is entirely in the latter category. Its a complete and utter waste of time and money.

[The Natural Philosopher]

And if you'ld put it into icelandic banks, you would have lost the bleeding lot.

And about 80-90% in the stock of just about any other bank.

And you find someone who will let you trade in australian dollars in a hurry.

FX is too bloody chancy. Ive lost about te same as I made on FX. Not worth it - too many avariabes.

Mind you shorting the dollar and the pound right now looks about as good a bet as any, particularly against the yen and euro. Tho the pound may hav alrady bottomed out.

From a euro being 60p, its now worth a quid.

[Tim S]

The Natural Philosopher coughed up some electrons that declared:

I'm not known for my financial astuteness. I left Kaupthing because their online banking was rubbish. Good job I'm fussy like that.

So I spread it around a bit. 2 months later, magically all my dosh belongs to Santander. Better start looking for some more options...

sigh...

[geoff]

In message , Tim S writes

This is money

some useful charts

[John Rumm]

Just got mine refunded from icesave ;-)

(although I am *very* glad that the large block of cash that was sat there waiting to buy a house earlier in the year was well clear in time!)

Too right... I count myself lucky being only 70% down on Barclays shares.

[John Rumm]

Many hospitals have reduced deaths from MRSA apparently - most of them by allowing the patients to die from c.diff, before the MRSA gets a chance! ;-((

[Huge]

You didn't ask whether things were a benefit or not, you asked whether the costs were quantifiable.

It's certainly nothing like the no-brainer the greenies would have us believe.

Like a lot of people, I'm stocking up on filament bulbs for some applications.

[clumsy bastard]

but would be magnified under this one

a few private hands

[The Natural Philosopher]

thats becuse hen something is a net benefit, it represents saving more than it costs.