This wakes the amateur and inadequate economist in me.
Somehow, while it seems logical, indeed necessary, that lower costs would lead to lower prices. This is not assured.
Prices are set mostly by the demand. If you're willing (or compelled by need) to pay, you will pay. Costs are not the determinant in many markets. In the US some markets (utilities for instance) are regulated in a manner that escapes this, but that's not anything like a 'free market', and not in scope for this thread.
Some markets are somewhat responsive to demand, for instance the US gasoline market - but also responsive to seasonal influences, such as refinery changeovers, and to other influences, such as outages, pipeline failures, weather. US Heating oil is a fabulous market, and many a northern state dealer deals in futures, contracts with customers for fixed amounts at fixed prices, and is active in the heat pump business, since oil is becoming unattractive. Food can be a volatile market for many reasons.
You can be sure that the cell phone industry is constantly determining what the price is that we will pay. The combinations of caps, features, and billing methods are fascinating.
For me the market lesson most fascinating is GM and its response to the Japanese invasion of the 70s-90s. GM changed little until it was past obvious they needed to or fail. So they cut their payroll. Even the white-collar jobs.
Look at a market that is coming to grips with a new paradigm - cable TV. This market is learning that they have both actual competition and customers who are no longer willing to pay whatever they are told to. Early stages, but it's coming.
My point is that these platitudes about mergers not lowering prices aren't very helpful, and often misleading. Real market change can affect prices, for instance TMO changing the phone lease/purchase paradigm, and as the networks 'merge', focusing on LTE and leaving CDMA behind, locked phones will become undesirable, and we will see a more EU-style market, though pricing may not be so simple. Remember, the US is a huge place relative to Europe, and complaints about coverage are often rooted in technology problems.
Long-range solutions will impact a lot. As Band 71 builds out, expect that to be the hammer on the cable TV business head. There is no good solution for cable systems to extend their reach into underpopulated areas, DSL of course can't, and will be limited and fail.
TMO has been working on 5G for some time now. That's not a merger-enabled opportunity for them. Sprint also was claiming they would deploy 5G in a year.
Everyone in the business is all over 5G. Mergers are not necessary.
Comcast isn't making you buy cable channels to get high speed Internet - it's essentially giving you a discount on higher speed Internet if you have TV service, and if you don't well, you get to buy faster Internet at their higher price.
Not the same thing as telling you that you can't have higher speed Internet without TV. Unless I missed that in the article.
Public school education is and should be a local responsibility. Tying it somehow to national defense is wrong and misleading.
However, it's also instructive that local government most often cuts or neglects the core responsibilities when money gets tight; fire protection, police, schools. Do they cut PR flaks and managers? If local government is in fact operating close to the bone, any cuts have to be across the board. No department should be fatter than another.
If you got headaches around some old analog TVs, you were probably sensitive to the horizontal scan frequency of 15,734Hz (at least in the US). If the flyback transformer had a loose core it could vibrate and I got terrible headaches from those.
VGA monitors were usually running at 25-32kHZ, and I rarely reacted to them unless the core was really really bad (or poorly designed), and then only through my right ear. My left ear is down at least 40dB through most normally audible frequencies, which leads to interesting accommodations when I mix or do sound reinforcement. Don't tell anyone else, please, they think I can hear fine.
Modern flat panel TVs have similar scanning frequency needs, but there are no components that regularly fail or cause audible signals to be generated, with the very rare exception of inverter transformers that I've never heard. I doubt they cause any problems, the tech is so different there isn't anything to make the sound audibly.
If you really wanna go to college, put off buying a house for 10 years after graduation.
If you want to earn money without debt;
- If you don't mind being wet, be a plumber. - If you don't mind being dirty, be an auto tech. This is going to get cleaner. - Otherwise, be an electrician. - Or, if you like people, go into medical technology.
All of these can be obtained via community college/tech school, and some can be apprenticeships, where you can get paid to train. And there is no end in sight for the need for plumbers, electricians, or medical techs. Auto tech is going to change dramatically over the next 20 years, and if you get in in the next 10 you're golden.
Everything a BA is qualified for out of college is a target for automation or being turned into software, and delivered from anywhere on the globe. No, you can't move there, you're not software.
IT and CS degrees still have some value, and the military is still an option if it's to your taste. But that Liberal Arts degree is going to be useful for a smaller and smaller set of occupations, until we figure out how to make creative the new manufacturing, and make it profitable. Globally.
And all this time I thought Band 71 was going to use those old UHF towers. It's all so confusing. What's this AM band all about? I thought they used numbers.
Are you overlooking the other costs of recovery? Paying the ransom and getting your systems decrypted is only the beginning.
And most of those costs would be the same whether you pay the ransom or not.
I doubt this is costing much more at all. For instance, you'll have to have all your systems scanned and reviewed to make the best effort to remove any other infestations, quite possibly replacing some or all outright. And then rebuilding the data security systems, training everyone to try and prevent this again, new network security, blah blah blah.
This is not cheap or easy to recover from if you're doing it right.
This is simple. If Americans will never, ever be ransomed, then nothing is lost by killing the American captives.
And this ensures that those nations that will pay are further convinced of the willingness of the captors to kill their captives, and more likely to pay.
This is reinforcing. Changing the policy of those nations that would pay will likely result in dead captives for a period, until the captors are convinced there is no money in the enterprise. This is a high cost, and the policy could be rolled back under pressure. The cycle begins again.
"Everyone you work with and are friends with has been doing illegals things. What does that say about you?"
That if you have sufficiently powerful friends you can avoid the consequences, if only for a little while. Or longer, if your friends keep their power and still protect you.
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This wakes the amateur and inadequate economist in me.
Somehow, while it seems logical, indeed necessary, that lower costs would lead to lower prices. This is not assured.
Prices are set mostly by the demand. If you're willing (or compelled by need) to pay, you will pay. Costs are not the determinant in many markets. In the US some markets (utilities for instance) are regulated in a manner that escapes this, but that's not anything like a 'free market', and not in scope for this thread.
Some markets are somewhat responsive to demand, for instance the US gasoline market - but also responsive to seasonal influences, such as refinery changeovers, and to other influences, such as outages, pipeline failures, weather. US Heating oil is a fabulous market, and many a northern state dealer deals in futures, contracts with customers for fixed amounts at fixed prices, and is active in the heat pump business, since oil is becoming unattractive. Food can be a volatile market for many reasons.
You can be sure that the cell phone industry is constantly determining what the price is that we will pay. The combinations of caps, features, and billing methods are fascinating.
For me the market lesson most fascinating is GM and its response to the Japanese invasion of the 70s-90s. GM changed little until it was past obvious they needed to or fail. So they cut their payroll. Even the white-collar jobs.
Look at a market that is coming to grips with a new paradigm - cable TV. This market is learning that they have both actual competition and customers who are no longer willing to pay whatever they are told to. Early stages, but it's coming.
My point is that these platitudes about mergers not lowering prices aren't very helpful, and often misleading. Real market change can affect prices, for instance TMO changing the phone lease/purchase paradigm, and as the networks 'merge', focusing on LTE and leaving CDMA behind, locked phones will become undesirable, and we will see a more EU-style market, though pricing may not be so simple. Remember, the US is a huge place relative to Europe, and complaints about coverage are often rooted in technology problems.
Long-range solutions will impact a lot. As Band 71 builds out, expect that to be the hammer on the cable TV business head. There is no good solution for cable systems to extend their reach into underpopulated areas, DSL of course can't, and will be limited and fail.
We live in interesting times.
TMO has been working on 5G for some time now. That's not a merger-enabled opportunity for them. Sprint also was claiming they would deploy 5G in a year.
Everyone in the business is all over 5G. Mergers are not necessary.
The impact on CDMA is already underway, and has nothing to do with this or any other proposed merger
Comcast isn't making you buy cable channels to get high speed Internet - it's essentially giving you a discount on higher speed Internet if you have TV service, and if you don't well, you get to buy faster Internet at their higher price.
Not the same thing as telling you that you can't have higher speed Internet without TV. Unless I missed that in the article.
Your analogy is so defective it makes Comcast look almost reasonable.
I used to think that voting out the incumbents would result in a bureaucracy in control of the system, unelected, unaccountable, out of control.
Turns out this is happening anyways.
"significantly MORE taxes"
"proper public funding"
Not the same thing, Not even equivalent.
Public school education is and should be a local responsibility. Tying it somehow to national defense is wrong and misleading.
However, it's also instructive that local government most often cuts or neglects the core responsibilities when money gets tight; fire protection, police, schools. Do they cut PR flaks and managers? If local government is in fact operating close to the bone, any cuts have to be across the board. No department should be fatter than another.
If you got headaches around some old analog TVs, you were probably sensitive to the horizontal scan frequency of 15,734Hz (at least in the US). If the flyback transformer had a loose core it could vibrate and I got terrible headaches from those.
VGA monitors were usually running at 25-32kHZ, and I rarely reacted to them unless the core was really really bad (or poorly designed), and then only through my right ear. My left ear is down at least 40dB through most normally audible frequencies, which leads to interesting accommodations when I mix or do sound reinforcement. Don't tell anyone else, please, they think I can hear fine.
Modern flat panel TVs have similar scanning frequency needs, but there are no components that regularly fail or cause audible signals to be generated, with the very rare exception of inverter transformers that I've never heard. I doubt they cause any problems, the tech is so different there isn't anything to make the sound audibly.
Of course you do.Eventually someone makes the thing that makes the thing. Machinist is a thriving trade.
If that's not making sense, then be a welder.
You both ought to show your UID. 'Him' first.
No, it's dead on.
Best advice to your high schooler:
If you really wanna go to college, put off buying a house for 10 years after graduation.
If you want to earn money without debt;
- If you don't mind being wet, be a plumber.
- If you don't mind being dirty, be an auto tech. This is going to get cleaner.
- Otherwise, be an electrician.
- Or, if you like people, go into medical technology.
All of these can be obtained via community college/tech school, and some can be apprenticeships, where you can get paid to train. And there is no end in sight for the need for plumbers, electricians, or medical techs. Auto tech is going to change dramatically over the next 20 years, and if you get in in the next 10 you're golden.
Everything a BA is qualified for out of college is a target for automation or being turned into software, and delivered from anywhere on the globe. No, you can't move there, you're not software.
IT and CS degrees still have some value, and the military is still an option if it's to your taste. But that Liberal Arts degree is going to be useful for a smaller and smaller set of occupations, until we figure out how to make creative the new manufacturing, and make it profitable. Globally.
And all this time I thought Band 71 was going to use those old UHF towers. It's all so confusing. What's this AM band all about? I thought they used numbers.
Look, it got off the sofa. C'mon, get a UID and get off the porch, p0ser...
My SMS is free, unlimited, just like my voice service, for a reasonable price. What are these ridiculously-priced text messaging plans you write of?
Correct.
Are you overlooking the other costs of recovery? Paying the ransom and getting your systems decrypted is only the beginning.
And most of those costs would be the same whether you pay the ransom or not.
I doubt this is costing much more at all. For instance, you'll have to have all your systems scanned and reviewed to make the best effort to remove any other infestations, quite possibly replacing some or all outright. And then rebuilding the data security systems, training everyone to try and prevent this again, new network security, blah blah blah.
This is not cheap or easy to recover from if you're doing it right.
This is simple. If Americans will never, ever be ransomed, then nothing is lost by killing the American captives.
And this ensures that those nations that will pay are further convinced of the willingness of the captors to kill their captives, and more likely to pay.
This is reinforcing. Changing the policy of those nations that would pay will likely result in dead captives for a period, until the captors are convinced there is no money in the enterprise. This is a high cost, and the policy could be rolled back under pressure. The cycle begins again.
Then we need to redesign SMS.
It's SMS. PITA to encrypt, both parties need to do so the same way.
And no, iMessage isn't SMS.
Well past time to restrain our government, agreed. But antitrust? I was thinking of relatively simple legislation.
Oh, and outlaw that forfeiture crap too.
Those were the rules. The primary process worked as designed
Now the financing, that's a different story.
How would you know?
"Everyone you work with and are friends with has been doing illegals things. What does that say about you?"
That if you have sufficiently powerful friends you can avoid the consequences, if only for a little while. Or longer, if your friends keep their power and still protect you.
He said 'best', not 'infallible'.
Your complaint is noted, however.