Tax business travel to reduce emissions

Today Joshua Gans discusses emissions from airlines, and how adding a $30 levy to all tickets is hardly reasonable. He does mention the idea of a more focused levy, to discourage certain categories of air travel.

I agree with the idea of taxing some of the more unnecessary business travel. I can understand the need to attend some meetings and conferences in person, but some organisations have just gone nuts. Interstate plane tickets around Australia are fairly inexpensive these days, plus the fact that 30% of the ticket’s price comes back as a tax deduction anyway.

But how could we identify the relevant flights, and thus fairly tax them? Perhaps the answer is to remove or reduce tax deductions where the activity is environmentally unfriendly. Are there other activities where this approach would be in the public interest?

A blanket $30 price hike would affect tourism, while a $30 reduction in the tax deduction for air travel would only affect business travel.

I can see the public interest in encouraging tourism within Australia, but where is the public benefit in flying business people around the country every five seconds for a meeting?

Perhaps they’re all flying to climate change conferences?

The evolution of reading the paper with breakfast

Back in the day, I’d read the newspaper with breakfast. Now I tend to read the news on the Internet, and that includes the ‘blogosphere’. The trouble with the silly blogosphere is that I get distracted, write an essay-like post, and now I’m late for work!

Also, see http://www.bradlands.com/weblog/1999-09.shtml#September%2010,%201999, and wonder if my blog would also turn into a prince if you kissed it…

Superfast broadband for the what now?

I wrote such a long comment at CoreEcon that I figured I should replicate it here:

I had a look at X Media Lab, and I saw games and digital video. I can see that being beneficial for education. But I can’t see that needing 100Mbps.

For example, Fire Department 3, is a computer game, but also simulates a very real scenario. This approach could help in future to train people for all kinds of jobs, where they must respond to scenarios that are not easy to stage in real life. A further advantage is in letting people who are geographically distant from each other, experience teamwork and get to know each other. However, there is no indication that it needs more than a 512kbps Internet connection to play in online teams.

As far as practical examples go, I have yet to hear someone say, “I am trying to create digital video as a home-based entrepreneur/artist/developer/etc, but my Internet is too slow.” Perhaps I’m just not looking hard enough.

But I have noticed that, out and about in the suburbs where I live, the only thing people want Internet above 512kbps for is downloading TV shows.

The progression of Internet technologies has taken us from 300bps to 1mbps and beyond. In the days of 300bps dial-up, Internet speeds were a serious deterrent to trying to transmit anything more than a few words in real-time. There was a desire to be able to transmit pages of text in a matter of seconds. With today’s Internet, we have achieved the wishes of the 1980’s. This blog took a split-second to load on my computer.

Our current uses of the Internet are still largely based on text and relatively narrow data streams, such as Internet games. The application of the Internet to video has largely been in replacing and improving the broadcast television model.

If we look at broadcast television, yes, it is amazingly useful for education. Specialist educational programs, news, current affairs and documentaries have far more benefits than simply entertainment. But all these applications can be, and are, delivered under 512kbps. For example, Google News, blogs, the New Matilda website, and Wikipedia. Youtube has benefited me personally by demonstrating processes that are best expressed in video, and are harder to learn about via text. All under 512kbps.

David does make an excellent point that we really have no way of predicting what the world will throw at us in 2007, 2012, and beyond. My contention is that, based on previous experience, we may not need this.

I will use the analogy of a book store I once worked at: the manager installed high-speed “gigabit” (1,000Mbps) networking in-store, in order to future-proof for as-yet unknown applications. This investment was made several years ago, but those cables still serve nothing more than glorified cash registers. Perhaps we should leave the huge infrastructure investments until we have some idea of what the actual purpose of that investment is?

Setting out some practical examples where ‘decent broadband’ is necessary would really help my understanding of this issue.

As for using virtual reality simulations to manage pain in children, there is a lot of anecdotal evidence to support this idea. Many parents know that all we have to do is plonk little Timmy in front of the telly, and he’ll stop complaining pretty quickly.

Virgin Money and Qantas, customer service excellence

I’m in a very good mood today. Do you know why?

Basically, over the last couple of days I’ve blown away my credit limit, and that got me into a slight jam, since an important air flight booking with Qantas had its payment rejected. But when I rang Qantas, they were kind enough to give me another 24 hours to arrange payment! The lady on the phone was informative and I couldn’t have asked for anything more.

At Virgin Money, another helpful telephone operator explained all the rules for me, and told me about what to expect in terms of processing time when shifting funds around and using BPAY.  Fantastic customer service!

They didn’t even have me on hold for very long. I had to talk to the Commonwealth Bank branch staff too, they were alright, but nothing special. The Commonwealth Bank’s telephone banking robot is pretty poor too. Nothing like ING Direct’s intuitive, efficient menu system. Plus ING’s robot voice is a lot more pleasant to listen to. Alright, I’ll admit it, as much as we all love a chirpy call centre chick, I’m a sucker for that ING man’s confident, non-threatening and helpful tone.

Adding value to low-value industries

I see employers squeezing staff, and working classes fighting back, all the time these days. To identify a core principle in these disputes, consider two contrasting scenarios. Firstly, a group of factory labourers going on strike against an inadequate wage offer. Secondly, an executive at a recruitment firm negotiating to receive additional options with his salary.

What’s the main difference, apart from the attitudes between employers and employee, and the amounts of money involved? The answer is adding value.

Labourers, cashiers, cleaners and, to a lesser extent, waitresses and kitchen hands are just some of the jobs that fail to attract credibility for adding value. Why? Well, compare them to architects, lawyers, skilled mining workers and engineers: professions which involve taking inputs and creating a much more valuable output. This can be by manipulating raw materials, applying their expertise, or enhancing the customer experience.

Ah, enhancing the customer experience.  This leads to the path from low-value to high-value. Why did I qualify waitresses with the phrase “to a lesser extent” above? Waiting staff, here called waitresses for convenience, exist along a continuum of value. At one end, inept teenagers at a pizza parlour take my order, or at least what they think is my order. At the other end, expert waitresses at high-class restaurants form a pivotal component of the dining experience.

However, other roles exist without the upper end of this continuum. For illustration purposes, recall that there has never been a Head Cleaner who was given any credibility for his or her position. Now consider the reasons for this, in light of the example of hospitality staff such as waitresses.

The conclusion one might draw is that, if cleaners want more job security, better pay, and public recognition for their hard work, they might evaluate the merits of a new, high-value cleaning profession. Silly titles like “public hygiene technician” do nothing positive to job satisfaction. But what if visitors were consistently greeted by fresh, regularly maintained facilities, with some kind of subtle note or signage to indicate the professional responsible for their experience.

Now that’s high-value cleaning.

GST on towels, or, how to advertise using Wikipedia

Okey dokey, come check out this diff from Wikipedia’s article on GST. All this guy’s done is add a link to http://www.gstaustralia.com.au… so I guess you’d assume that site is an informational site about GST, right?

Wrong. It’s a terrible five-paragraph summary of GST, with links to a small number of Tax Office rulings from 2004, which is when the link in question was added.

Oddly enough, this ‘GST Australia’ website has a lot of links to, well, towels. Towels? Are you kidding me?

So I had a look at the other contributions for the IP address. Oh look, this fellow’s also “contributed” to the article on, yep, you guessed it, towels.

Thankfully, some wise soul got rid of the silly link just half an hour later.

The lesson here is that you can subtly attract traffic for your website by adding links to Wikipedia articles, even articles which have nothing to do with your website.

Perhaps one method would be to ask Wikipedia for a random article, and then create a quick “mini site” about the topic, with links to your actual business.

Now, Mr Towel above didn’t succeed with the towels article for two reasons: one, the towels article was being actively monitored by a legit editor; and two, he linked directly to a commercial site, which seems to be against some rule on Wikipedia. Will you succeed where he failed?

The value of Lego pieces

I’m writing in response to Joshua Gans’s article about one school class’ experience of Lego ownership. My contribution relates to the value of ownership of Lego blocks.

 

 

The teachers created a warped ‘trading game’ with arbitrary winners and losers. I think this was because the teachers had this view of society: rich people are rich because of undeserved, arbitrary wealth, and this gives them immunity from the rules of the world, and power over less wealthy folk; regular folk like teachers are permanently trapped with their lot in life. In other words, the teachers think they live in a medieval feudal society.

 

 

They have ignored the fact that people from the ‘bottom of the ladder’ in society can, and have, risen to great success, financially or otherwise.

 

 

To illustrate the relevant of my last paragraph, consider what the children with fewer points in the trading game could have done to secure more points: offer something else of value. If I was a child with eight points, and you had 12 blocks, I might offer you part of my lunch, or some service like pushing you on the swings outside, in exchange for some of your blocks. Alternatively, I might approach you with a joint venture proposal to pool our blocks and create something bigger and more awesome than any single child could create.

 

 

The flaw in the trading game is that it forces the children to accept the values imposed on them. Arguably, this may well represent how the media influences the average person. But in reality, we design our own values. That Liam kid had like 40 points, by virtue of having eight “valuable” green blocks.

 

 

But think about the actual value of eight green blocks. What is he going to do with them, create a Lego lawn?

 

 

Notwithstanding the silly points system imposed by the teachers, two kids with “less valuable” colours like white and red would have a greater capacity to make an awesome Lego spaceship.

 

 

I don’t know about you, but I would value an awe-inspiring Lego spaceship more highly than winning a stupid game. What does that tell you about the value of Lego pieces?

 

Mediation

I had some informal mediation the other day. Boy is it effective!

Having a third party facilitating discussion of the issue helped both the other party and myself to open up and be honest about the problem and its causes. We quickly ascertained the issues behind what had happened, and negotiated a mutually-beneficial outcome. The result was that rather than become aggressive and resort to threats, we maintained our civility and the health of the relationship improved.

The criteria for a successful mediator is that they not have a vested interest in either side, lest they simply become a mouthpiece for one party at the expense of the other. The other criteria is that they be of reasonable thought, in the circumstances, and a skilled communicator. This helps communication to flow, rather than get stuck when one party feels the other is being unreasonable.

An important criteria, from my point of view, is that the parties feel they may disclose the entire relevant circumstances to the mediator. This can be achieved by selecting a person of good reputation, known to both parties to be so. I’m not sure how a confidentiality agreement would go down in some situations!

Mediation is an invaluable tool in resolving disputes, even when two-party communication has broken down.

Passive people win how?

Once upon a time, there was a quiet young office worker, in the accounts department. But she wanted so very much to work in marketing! She was reading as much as she could about marketing theory, keeping up to date with the industry through journals and blogs, and working incredibly hard in her accounts job,  to try and land a promotion to the marketing department. She had been toiling for months, looking forward to the day that finally happened…

One day the marketing manager had some business in the accounts area, and on his way out he passed her desk as normal.  But this time he stopped. He thought for a second, tapped his chin, and then turned to her with a smile. “Hey, how would you like to help us out on our new marketing campaign?”

“I’d love to!” she exclaimed. She joined the marketing campaign, showed great talent, and they all lived happily ever after.

Unfortunately, the story above is the worst fairy tale I have ever written in my life.

New word every day – improve my vocabulary

I thought to myself, wouldn’t it be nice if someone would email me a new word every day, with its definition and pronunciation. Perhaps they could also give me a brief intro to the encyclopaedic entry for the word, if it exists.

It would be an interesting way to expand my vocabulary!

To avoid wasting the time of those who already have extensive vocabularies, you could offer to send me a replacement if I already knew the word you sent me on a given day.

Who will perform this service for me?

[Update: Related post: http://learningnerd.wordpress.com/2006/08/19/improve-your-vocabulary/]