HEALTHCARE AND ENERGY SOLVED

taking a cue from jonathan swift, i have come up with a solution to both our energy and healthcare problems.

my eureka moment came during a recent visit to Memphis Tennessee. i was staying at the weston and when i check in i was in line behind 2 couples who were so large that they blocked all view of the front desk.

i then went into the elevator and it had a sign on maximum number of people and maximum weight. if you divided the two, it called for an average weight of about 167 lbs. however looking around, the average looked around 250.

i then went to the gym and was the only person there, two days in a row.

so it re-emphasized that we are one fat assed nation!

so here is my idea

we will have mandatory liposuction for all overweight people
the fat will be rendered and distilled into a fuel

this will result in a healthier population and a new fuel source. more people will fit in elevators, plane fares will come down as weight will be lower and fuel costs per flight lower; plastic surgeons will make enormous money and spend it on fancy cars and restaurants and clothes.

a virtuous circle.

NET NEUTRALITY AINT SO NEUTRAL

as frank lund says, words make a difference. junk bonds bad; high yield bonds good. have you noticed that almost all legislation passed by congress has the word reform in it. financial reform, health reform, campaign finance reform. we are just a country of reformers, making things better all the time.

which brings me to net neutrality. now net neutrality sounds like it must be a good thing. the net is important and neutrality is a good thing so net neutrality must be a really good thing. Switzerland is neutral and they are good right? aside from taking deposits from despots, drug and arms dealers.

anyway down to cases. there was an excellent article in the nytimes of all places but sourced by reuters that framed it as a battle between the pipes and the swipes. the pipes are the people who build the physical infrastructure to deliver bandwidth, verizon, att, direct tv, etc. the swipes are the people that use this bandwidth to deliver digital content like apple, google, microsoft etc.

now the pipes have spent and continue to spend year in and year out tens of billions on capital expenditures. and they want a return on this capital. the swipes and all the app and content providers want to ride on all this capital investment with a somewhat parasitic business model where the costs are born by the pipes and when they either raise prices to support their investment or offer premium service for a premium price; people howl at the evil pipes.

now where else is it ok to have unlimited consumption of a scarce resource for a flat, capped fixed amount? if you use more water, you pay for it. if you use more electricity, heating oil, gasoline, etc you pay for it. so why is it a crime to charge for more bandwidth? it aint free.

this has very little to do with neutrality. it is merely a commercial fight that should get sorted out in the market place. we should aspire to something akin to universal internet connectivity at some reasonable level of bandwidth but if i want more and faster i should be able to get it and have to pay for it.

your thoughts?