Archive for June 25th, 2004

Someone Should Think of This

I haven’t changed a tire in decades. About forty years ago my tire went down and the temperature was about 104 degrees. I pulled over and started to jack the car up. It didn’t go up. I suddenly realized the jack was sinking into the tar the road was paved with.

But I understand that changing a tire is a real pain because you have to empty the trunk and take out the “donut” tire that will substitute until you get a real change.

Considering how seldom one has to change a tire these days, this idea may be useless, but it seems to me that one could put a rim inside or outside of each tire that is made of one of those superstrong materials they use to make roller skates these days. It would extend far enough down so that if the tire went down almost completely, you would be able to limp along on it to the nearest highway exit.

There are probably better ideas, in fact, I’m sure of it. But a car suddenly blowing a tire and having to stop is out of date, so maybe somebody should think about this.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

No Comments

Punishment is Cheap

Supply and demand is the basis of modern economics.

There is another simple rule that is just as basic to our society as supply and demand:

Punishment is cheaper than rewards. Any idiot can hurt somebody. It takes talent and work to make people happy. That is why Gangstah Rap is so popular with incompetent young people. They can only get what they want by simple-mindedly hurting people.

This is why Hell is so much more realistic to people than Heaven is. Everybody can imagine Hell. Nobody can imagine Heaven. You can visualize a hundred forms of agony. But how about permanent ecstasy?

In Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift talked about a society that did not so much punish people for crimes as it rewarded them for honesty. Nice idea. Why didn’t anyone try it?

Because it would be too expensive. Rewarding honest people would be costly to say the least. Hanging the bad ones was cheap. America has two million people in its enormously expensive prisons. But that is cheaper than rewarding the other two hundred and seventy million or so other Americans for not committing crimes.

Facebooktwitterredditpinterestlinkedinmail

No Comments