Wrap Up for February '15

Spring can't come soon enough for me, this year! Even so I know I have no business complaining, because the biggest part of the really cold weather (not to mention immense piles of snow in Boston) is well north of where I live. The last two winters have been somewhat odd for southeast Texas, where normally it isn't unusual to see a few mosquitoes floating around even in January...

February brought an unexpected emphasis to human capital debates. Somehow in the middle of all this, perhaps aggregate time value might eventually become a part of the discussion. For one thing, there's little point in gauging output potential, while low labor force participation skewers the employment statistics which the Fed and other observers rely on. Coordinated time use has the capacity to become an important component of GDP, and services product need not always be defined on exogenous terms.

Plus, it's no longer just about labor, but what individuals want work to actually become. Restoration of time value would validate conscious decisions and preferences, on the part of individuals. After all, time use options don't always resemble what authorities would otherwise attribute to work norms. Presently, time value is still in the eyes of the institutional beholder. But a free market in time use means a more meaningful happiness quotient, and the chance of recreating economic value on personal terms.

Some links for the month:

Timothy Taylor penned one of the best articles I've come across, re the blurry line between competition and cooperation, and the ways in which they intersect:
http://www.econlib.org/library/Columns/y2015/Taylorcompetition.html

Everyone knew it would happen eventually...The legacy of debt: Interest costs poised to surpass defense and nondefense discretionary spending

Is this a Marxian perspective, or Hayekian? http://stumblingandmumbling.typepad.com/stumbling_and_mumbling/2015/02/why-not-worker-ownership.html

Ranesh Ponnuru asks, Why are Republicans bringing up inequality?

How many politicians have ready answers, this year? Politics Counts: Wage Riddle Has Lasted Decades

Also details some differences in the ways men and women respond over time. There is some useful information in this article:
Basic personality changed linked to unemployment, study finds.

Contrary to what one might have expected until recently, Americans are running out of office space. It's hard to believe now how spacious offices once were, even in the nineties.

In a recent post (Heart of Darkness) Scott Sumner also muses in the comments about the unexpected problems of Pitcairn Island. After a certain point in one's life, "getting away from it all" is no longer desirable for most individuals. Social isolation has its own unique set of difficulties.

Freedom from whom and what? I was concerned that this kind of scenario might eventually play out between cities and states. From the article:

"It has seemed hypocritical that the state wants the federal government to give the states more power, yet at the state level, they want to take power away from cities and counties.

Blockchain could probably be utilized in a record keeping capacity for knowledge use systems as well. The best aspect is no third party would be necessary for ongoing transactions and agreed upon settings for time use.

Note the occasional spaces that are often "needed" beyond immediate living environment. Also: "Only 19 percent of single person households are under 35 years old." http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/22/realestate/micro-apartments-tiny-homes-prefabricated-in-brooklyn.html

When a city is starving for growth, predictability is important: http://bigcitysparkplug.com/2015/02/27/the-dangers-of-busting-law-breaking-businesses/