Jamesian Philosophy Refreshed

I wrote something here not long ago about the practice of tipping a barber -- at least, my barber. I didn't mean much by it except as a filler anecdote for a day when nothing very profound occurred to me. But the wonderful blog Marginal Revolution has got me thinking that there IS something important to consider about the practice of tipping people in service businesses with low barriers to entry. Consider, with MR, the Uber driver who typically has a tip jar. Through the app you are paying Uber, which is paying him, and through the tip jar you can pay him directly. Now: does the practice of the tip jar affect his income? In the traditional model, assuming perfect competition, etc., the answer is clearly "no." After all, assume it did. Assume, then, that the drivers started making more money per trip by making tip jars available. Word would get out, the business of becoming an Uber driver would be more appealing, and more people would do it. That would mean more ...

I've learned a few things as a consequence of my recent trip to London. 1. It is possible to book quick inexpensive flights to London with a modest stop-over to Dublin, through the Irish airline, Aer Lingus . 2. There are PCs with internet access available to the public in the airport in Dublin, but they aren't very reliable. I used one on my way outbound to get a brief message out, but even then there were huge time-and-money-wasting waits from one screen to the next, and my effort to do the same on my way westbound proved futile. 3. A taxicab ride from Heathrow Airport to downtown London is absurdly expensive (more than 60 GBP each way) and unnecessary to boot. The shuttle train between Heathrow and Paddington Station is much less expensive, comfortable, and quick. 4.  It is called "Paddington" Station. Calling it "Pinkerton" Station just confuses people. Pinkerton is the name of a detective agency. Paddington is a toy bear (as above). Try not t...

This will be my last use this year of jokes from the Johnny Carson joke-a-day calender. On February 8, 1977, Johnny was doing some riffs on the silver anniversary of Queen Elizabeth II. "As a matter of fact, I wired the Queen of England a congratulatory wire and said I thought it was very nice of her, showing up every day for twenty-five years without using a guest Queen." On November 12, 1980, he said: "It is so dry out there today, I saw a robin rubbing Vasoline Intensive Care on his chapped worm." Okay, that doesn't make a lot of sense. But I'm sure it was preceded by Ed McMahon asking him dramatically "how dry IS it?" Finally ... On March 15, 1990, Johny said: "Anytime four New Yorkers get into a cab together wothout arguing, a bank robbery has just taken place." (And happy birthday to my kid brother Mark, a youthful 53 on Nov. 10, 2012).