You probably know that RadioHead just released a new album that people can pay whatever they want for. You can check that out on the RadioHead.com website. This is what I call a “reality based approach.”
In reality, we have to understand that it’s very difficult to control what people do. Since the album is going to be downloaded for free on the internet anyway a reality based approach is to make it easy for people to give you money.
This has been a pretty solid success. A recent new york times article reports that the average sale price is $8. The same article also talks about how economists are baffled that people would pay anything at all, if they don’t have to.
“Since we economists don’t understand tipping, we can’t really say whether this new scheme will work,” Greg Mankiw, a Harvard professor of economics, said in an entry on his blog.
ummm, just to be clear, people who don’t understand tipping are autistic douchebags.
Also, a lot of people are heralding this as the death of the music industry. I doubt it, but is anyone really surprised that both fans and artists are eager to get away from and industry that’s been a total dick?
Here’s another example:
A comprehensive global study of abortion has concluded that abortion rates are similar in countries where it is legal and those where it is not, suggesting that outlawing the procedure does little to deter women seeking it.
…duh.
But the legal status of abortion did greatly affect the dangers involved, the researchers said. “Generally, where abortion is legal it will be provided in a safe manner,” Dr. Van Look said. “And the opposite is also true: where it is illegal, it is likely to be unsafe, performed under unsafe conditions by poorly trained providers.”
also, duh. Here’s an example of the Reality Approach from the same article
The data also suggested that the best way to reduce abortion rates was not to make abortion illegal but to make contraception more widely available, said Sharon Camp, chief executive of the Guttmacher Institute.
Also, people are going
