When I was in grad school I read a book called The Gift Relationship. It was an economic analysis of blood donation back when testing was not as refined as it today. It was before HIV but hepatitis transmission through blood donation was a serious problem, especially given the likelihood that many of the paid donors at the street level clinics were drug addicts and/or homeless. The book made the argument that with cost of treating hepatitis so high, and the damage so great, it would be rational to pay Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists significantly more than blood donation centers paid addicts to become professional blood donors. Prostitution - legal and regulated in Nevada and famously in Amsterdam and maybe other locations. Addictive drugs - different story. I think Portland, Amsterdam and places like that have tried a benign approach but wound up with a greater addiction problem.
While I am not up-to-date on the addiction issues in Amsterdam, at one time the program there, which essentially is supervised injection with free needles, saved a lot of lives. I suspect this is even more true in the age of fentanyl, which can kill with only a tiny amount more than an addict might need to get high. The idea is to build trust as well as safety, a gateway to treatment of addiction.
Cities in the United States have offered needle exchange programs to help prevent hepatitis and HIV, but they fight an uphill battle because many see addiction as a moral failing rather than an illness. Thus we continue to have a high rate of deaths even though Narcan is relatively easy to purchase now.
I think about this alot…those things that have value we barely measure, in an age where AI can do so much, but not these things. One AI guru said, “What will we all do—theater?” I have so many friends of a certain age who love to coach and mentor. You can’t make a living doing that, by and large. But better this than UBI. Every kid in school could use a mentor or serveral.
I appreciate the summary as I was not up to reading a lengthy transcript. Obviously, no market exists where no one wants to purchase an item, be it a kidney or horse meat or prostitution. Typically our problem is regulation of risky markets, such as crypto and online betting prediction markets right now. Without regulation, small players/purchasers are likely to get hurt, just as they did with Bankman-Fried's scheme. With an administration that values money over lives and quality of life, we are unlikely to see meaningful regulation during the next 3-4 years. Trump and his kids are getting rich in these markets, as well as the disgusting fight market that now exists on the people's lawn of the people's house.
It would be interesting to hear comments from Al Roth, Economic Engineer, about recently enacted California Assembly Bill 39, the Local Electrification Planning Act. Here's the issue, as I see it:
AI developers are accelerating the renewable energy transition of US Industrial Tier infrastructure, but this has marginal benefits for typical residential and small business utility rate payers, who have become quite alarmed about repugnant impacts. California AB-39 implicitly recognizes that Industrial Tier AI developers and utility monopolies are not going to lead the renewable energy transition of local Community Tier (public) infrastructure, although they will undoubtedly play a significant role. For example, the complex development process between inter-acting government, utility, Community Choice Aggregators & Virtual Power Plant commercial silos, could be effectively expedited by Software-as-a-Service, utilizing AI agents to de-bug bottlenecks, and standardize, batch & streamline design, permitting, construction, management & maintenance workflows.
China has already deployed the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) charging network, totaling over 21 million charging points. This reflects a nearly 48% year-over-year growth, widening a massive gap with the United States (~200,000 public stations) and the European Union (~910,000 public chargers). This is an indication of comparative scale and speed of electrification.
US commuters require extraordinary fuel cost reduction and convenience incentives to rapidly switch to EVs. That’s exactly why France & South Korea have already mandated solar canopy parking lot Virtual Power Plants at ALL existing parking lots over 80 spaces, nationwide, within 3 to 5 years, largest lots first. That's how they plan to electrify, reduce & stabilize transportation costs, AND residential & small business utility bills, really FAST, by rapidly reducing peak utility transmission demand for shopping center refrigeration and small business and residential air conditioning loads, and by providing cheap Level-2 EV charging & battery storage at large workplace, shopping center, apartment and condominium parking lots everywhere. Parking lot owners get new windfall income from 25-year leases on their existing non-profit parking lots. No new utility monopoly transmission or fossil gas peaker plant spending required.
This strategy could be introduced as a local General Plan ordinance by California city & county governments under AB-39, with an "opt-out" provision for existing parking lot owners until 2035, when it would become mandatory. The general requirements for on-site solar generation & storage already apply to new and extensively remodeled commercial properties under existing state building codes.
I recently read this book too. The difference in what is legal around the world is food for thought — we often take our preferences as universal when they aren’t. Our absoluteness about laws often doesn’t give us the ability to experiment and reverse them if the unintended consequences are too dire.
When I was in grad school I read a book called The Gift Relationship. It was an economic analysis of blood donation back when testing was not as refined as it today. It was before HIV but hepatitis transmission through blood donation was a serious problem, especially given the likelihood that many of the paid donors at the street level clinics were drug addicts and/or homeless. The book made the argument that with cost of treating hepatitis so high, and the damage so great, it would be rational to pay Mormons and Seventh Day Adventists significantly more than blood donation centers paid addicts to become professional blood donors. Prostitution - legal and regulated in Nevada and famously in Amsterdam and maybe other locations. Addictive drugs - different story. I think Portland, Amsterdam and places like that have tried a benign approach but wound up with a greater addiction problem.
While I am not up-to-date on the addiction issues in Amsterdam, at one time the program there, which essentially is supervised injection with free needles, saved a lot of lives. I suspect this is even more true in the age of fentanyl, which can kill with only a tiny amount more than an addict might need to get high. The idea is to build trust as well as safety, a gateway to treatment of addiction.
Cities in the United States have offered needle exchange programs to help prevent hepatitis and HIV, but they fight an uphill battle because many see addiction as a moral failing rather than an illness. Thus we continue to have a high rate of deaths even though Narcan is relatively easy to purchase now.
I think about this alot…those things that have value we barely measure, in an age where AI can do so much, but not these things. One AI guru said, “What will we all do—theater?” I have so many friends of a certain age who love to coach and mentor. You can’t make a living doing that, by and large. But better this than UBI. Every kid in school could use a mentor or serveral.
I appreciate the summary as I was not up to reading a lengthy transcript. Obviously, no market exists where no one wants to purchase an item, be it a kidney or horse meat or prostitution. Typically our problem is regulation of risky markets, such as crypto and online betting prediction markets right now. Without regulation, small players/purchasers are likely to get hurt, just as they did with Bankman-Fried's scheme. With an administration that values money over lives and quality of life, we are unlikely to see meaningful regulation during the next 3-4 years. Trump and his kids are getting rich in these markets, as well as the disgusting fight market that now exists on the people's lawn of the people's house.
It would be interesting to hear comments from Al Roth, Economic Engineer, about recently enacted California Assembly Bill 39, the Local Electrification Planning Act. Here's the issue, as I see it:
AI developers are accelerating the renewable energy transition of US Industrial Tier infrastructure, but this has marginal benefits for typical residential and small business utility rate payers, who have become quite alarmed about repugnant impacts. California AB-39 implicitly recognizes that Industrial Tier AI developers and utility monopolies are not going to lead the renewable energy transition of local Community Tier (public) infrastructure, although they will undoubtedly play a significant role. For example, the complex development process between inter-acting government, utility, Community Choice Aggregators & Virtual Power Plant commercial silos, could be effectively expedited by Software-as-a-Service, utilizing AI agents to de-bug bottlenecks, and standardize, batch & streamline design, permitting, construction, management & maintenance workflows.
China has already deployed the world’s largest electric vehicle (EV) charging network, totaling over 21 million charging points. This reflects a nearly 48% year-over-year growth, widening a massive gap with the United States (~200,000 public stations) and the European Union (~910,000 public chargers). This is an indication of comparative scale and speed of electrification.
US commuters require extraordinary fuel cost reduction and convenience incentives to rapidly switch to EVs. That’s exactly why France & South Korea have already mandated solar canopy parking lot Virtual Power Plants at ALL existing parking lots over 80 spaces, nationwide, within 3 to 5 years, largest lots first. That's how they plan to electrify, reduce & stabilize transportation costs, AND residential & small business utility bills, really FAST, by rapidly reducing peak utility transmission demand for shopping center refrigeration and small business and residential air conditioning loads, and by providing cheap Level-2 EV charging & battery storage at large workplace, shopping center, apartment and condominium parking lots everywhere. Parking lot owners get new windfall income from 25-year leases on their existing non-profit parking lots. No new utility monopoly transmission or fossil gas peaker plant spending required.
This strategy could be introduced as a local General Plan ordinance by California city & county governments under AB-39, with an "opt-out" provision for existing parking lot owners until 2035, when it would become mandatory. The general requirements for on-site solar generation & storage already apply to new and extensively remodeled commercial properties under existing state building codes.
I recently read this book too. The difference in what is legal around the world is food for thought — we often take our preferences as universal when they aren’t. Our absoluteness about laws often doesn’t give us the ability to experiment and reverse them if the unintended consequences are too dire.