Now that I have your attention, I want to suggest a rationalisation of economy costs.

It seems to me what we need is for someone to first measure the maximum potential economic production. The MPEP! How much money could we possibly make. If every one would just play ball and be perfect, we could all be million-zillionares.

Then, all lobby groups would apply for a quota, to determine how much money their pet cause has *really* cost the economy. Tobacco vs alcohol vs stress vs domestic violence vs littering. They would all have to compete for their own hyperbowl. There would be a ministry of economic hyperbowl, to divvy up hyperbolic claims.

I want to see some competition between some of these prime economy costers. Someone has to decide whether the sickie is going to cost the economy, or the absense of the sickie and the mental health repurcussions, in the long run, cost more.

Whether the lack of exercise, or the exercise-induced accidents can claim the 12000000001th potential dollar the economy could have produced.

The problem was highlighted to me when I thought about the overlapping nature of costing the economy claims. There needs to be an authority to validate all such claims, and give percentages claimable to all these organisations.

When someone presents to the GP for example, the GP must decipher as a primary responsibility just what are the costs to the economy.

Instead of a script for antibiotics, I think a public report into what effects this persons sickness has had on the economy, and what efforts they have made to ammeliorate this effect and what life decisions have contributed.

The Economy is the single most important thing we have, and we must worship it by quantifying the cost of everything we do against a possible negative cost on to our lord.

A toast! TO the economy! To a precision of 5 decimal points!

* The time used in writing this cost the economy about $500.

Sounds like you need a more productive job.

I am getting a headache just thinking about it.

I have calculated my headache will cost the economy about $1000 unless I take some medicine which might cost more if slave labour was used if one accounts for the funding given to human rights groups or energy used in freighting medicine to the retailer, how much carbon was used particularly if there was any flatulence occurring during the manufacturing process, or the cost to the economy if any business grants or subsidies were applied, were any chemicals subsidised by the PBS.

Yes definitely a headache coming on - this post probably cost the economy about $500 in gross terms if you include energy costs, time that could have been spent producing something (like an ear of corn or a widget), the education I received free to be able to type and write words....

This headache is getting much worse now.

That's the spirit pelican.

It's amazine how if you come up with a figure, any figure, it gives more weight to all the subjective, arbitrary decisions made with terrible bias to calculate the figure. It disguises the rubbish assertions that was used to make the figure up.

People hear something in dollars, and think it's real. As in real money has been used, or there was an actual measurement that means something.

It's counter-productive to appeal to people's sympathy in fixing societal problems by warning them it will hurt their hip pocket in some indirect way. It has the effect of encouraging a lack of empathy, and demands cynicism when the figures are so ridiculously hyperbolic.

I think another reason for the tactic is the bleeding heart lefties attempting to get attention from what they see as the heartless conservatives, in the only 'currency' that they think will work.

Then again business groups use these sort of figures to tell everyone what a terrible imposition it is that they have to pay sick leave, even when it's allowed for in the average salary package and there is a work culture where they get all this free overtime.

There is a real environment now that people say if you explicitly do anything that will hurt the economy you are letting the whole country down. How dare someone have a buy nothing day! How dare you buy overseas or choose your own holiday destination! The expectation is that the economy should be the primary concern when going about your life.

The economy worship was always implicit, but now people actually explicitly call for people to help the economy and go shopping. The health benefits from quitting smoking aren't enough, it's the economy that is the real reason to quit smoking. Women being bashed isn't a problem unless it hurts the economy.

It's a very Brave New World Huxley type thing where the motto is ending is better than mending and we worship 'Our Ford' the economy.

If only the governments would play ball and hand out some Soma.

I made the mistake of reading the first few posts earlier, a net gain to the economy of $300 as it relaxed me enough to switch tasks.

In response to questions in the VAW thread I found links to an Access Economics report commissioned by the Office for the Status of Women which I think is the basis of costing claims in that thread.

http://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sa/women/pubs/violence/np_time_for_action/economic_costs/Documents/VAWC_Economic_Report.PDF (Page 7)

"Without appropriate action, the total cost of violence against women and their children in 2021-22 is estimated to be $15.6 billion. The largest contributor is ‘pain, suffering and premature mortality’, at $7.5 billion. The remaining costs total $8.1 billion. The largest part is ‘consumption-related’ costs at $3.5 billion. The next largest categories are ‘production’ and ‘administrative and other’, at $1.2 billion and $1.1 billion respectively."

That paper might be a useful start for the set up of the new commission proposed here.

R0bert

What an absolutely brilliant thread.

And what a challenge to come up with something
clever. I'll have to go now and think about
issues like smoking and the effect that it
has on the economy in medical costs. I used to
smoke forty cigarettes a day! No that's ridiculous.
Make that thirty! (Actually I'm quitting tomorrow).
(joke).

What about the costs involved in travel? or how
safe are our planes? what costs to the economy
does travel involve? I remember a family member
telling us about their flight from Sweden to
Darwin, "after 36 hours of a jug-jiggling, arse-
numbing, gut-rumbling ride in a plane that she
swore was powered by rubber bands and a
two-stroke concrete mixer motor, they emerged into
a tropical rain storm at Darwin airport. It was hot,
steamy, and more oppressive than the inside of an
ice-hockey player's jockstrap after a national
final... And the beautiful smells, like bananas,
and guavas, and other tropical fruits in the air."

How do you put a price on any of that?

Ah well, back to the drawing board for me.

Lexi the pain and suffering has got to be worth quite a bit, say $400K direct then flow on effects - you've shared their pain so another $100K for your suffering.

Darwin's reputation has suffered, $1M. A net cost of $1.8M (always have to assume that you've missed something), better make that $2M.

R0bert

Houellebecq...

A person with a new idea is a crank until the idea succeeds...says Mark Twain.

Dear RObert,

$2M. that's one heavy load!

Anybody ever bothered to work out how much Labor incompetence is costing us ?

I tried to work out what my posting to OLO was costing the economy, then I realised it was $0, since I wouldn't have been doing anything productive anyway. The construction industry is at a standstill.

'you've shared their pain '

Haha that's true R0bert. That study you found said if the violent partner had any contact with colleagues at work, their pain had to be taken into account.

I don't think you can be too thorough. I think they missed out many variables.

House fires; When someone burns their toast due to the depression from violence, and a house fire starts, and then the flow on emotional post traumatic stress disorder of the Firewoman, and the effect on her kids is missed out in the 'generational effects' in the study.

Perhaps in my governmnet department I will have to have a standard 'degrees of seperation coefficient', but I suppose that should come out in the wash once we have finalised the MPEP.

Ross Gittins would be interested in helping with this, he's always going on about Happiness Indicies of the community. So, after he's finished working out the Maximum possible community happiness (It would be hard because everyone follows different football teams so it's a zero sum game in many areas, not to mention love triangles), I will put him to work.

Once we have this Hyperbolic ceiling of the MPEP, I'm sure the feminists will be looking for their equal share in the hyperbolic pie. I'm sure the smokers would be happy to sacrifice some of their allotment, as they're always saying the stress relief they obtain from smoking makes them a net positive. But then the anti-smoking lobby would be lobbying hard for a massive degrees of seperation coefficient. Imagine all the passive smokers they would be claiming. Good thing more women smoke these days, so the feminists could claim smoking is exclusively a women's issues. I'm sure the women smoke because of the pressures of the evil patriarchy, whereas men smoke because they are evil abusive patriarchs.

Houlley
Or maybe impose a ban on single mothers - they are the devil's spawn according to our most strident masculinists and responsible for all societal woes. Much more economically viable just to ban women altogether just to offset any future risk of separation and the oncosts that will entail.

"Perhaps in my governmnet department I will have to have a standard 'degrees of seperation coefficient', but I suppose that should come out in the wash once we have finalised the MPEP."

You have a government department? You must be rich. As long as your 'degrees of separation coefficient' does not impact on the 'efficiency dividend' in anyway. That would be counterproductive. But a tight terms of reference would fix that in a jiff. Just make any flow-on effects invalid. They won't show up in the figures and it will look just spiffy - on paper anyway - even moreso if you outsource all your lower level APS to cheap labour hire organisations.

What is MPEP?
Monetary Penalties Enforcement Project
Manual of Patent Examining Procedure
2-Methyl-6-(phenylethynyl)pyridine
Military Personnel Exchange Program
Milk Processor Education Program
Metalworking Processes and Equipment Progra

pelican I consider you one of my key steak holders.

Pericles has just given me an idea on the VAW thread. I could create a cyclic sub-departments or 'task forces' that could generate the first genuine economic black hole.

What I'll do is inniitate an audit into what my department has cost the economy by the very act of working out the costs to the economy. Then, I will have a new department to audit the auditing department on how much the auditing department has cost the economy. Then a new department... and so on.

MPEP is 'Maimum potential economic production.'

BTW: I intend to only hire single mothers as an affirmitive action policy. I will allow them to work 10-2 so they can drop off and pick up kids from school, and pay for their degree as they work, and give them Monday-Thursday off to study and attent lectures. On Friday it wil be picnic day. In my female friendly picnic days we will have a talking stick, and only those who hold the talking stick will be allowed to talk. It will be worlds best practise for affirmitive action.

I have a friend in the public service and they sacrificed their picnic day for 3 minutes off each working day, so they now finish at 5:23PM (They got 3 minutes for sacrificing something else years ago, but nobody remembers what).

At the end of it all I will work out the opportunity cost of working out opportunity costs.

pelican I consider you one of my key steak holders.
Houllie ?
Can you be more specific ? Rime, rib, blade ? Only joking I'm sure you meant stake.
Sitting next to a young woman yesterday & she had one of those forms about management principles. I asked her if she knew about the Peter Principle. Of course she didn't.
Once we can wake people up & explain to them that the Peter Principle is the primary Principle in the Public Service then we might be in with a chance of getting Australia out the bog.
And, yes I had a colleague who spent over two days on the phone chasing up two hours pay while the patients were calling for assistance.
One of the Doctors actually cared about the hospital & he was shafted within a year. The Doctor who did nothing but chase up his entitlements became the medical Super.

'Only joking I'm sure you meant stake.'

Um, no.

You misunderestimate me individual.

http://elnellis.blogspot.com/2009/08/steak-holder.html

Is he letting them down or is he raising the steaks?

Anonymous said...
He's holdin' them...

I have long been a fan of steak holders. Small minds and all that...

So, no. You have the spelling wrong I'm afraid.

I always liked these OLO articles about the public service

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=7862

You'll like this one pelican...

http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=10557

Memo To All Staff
From: The Secretary
Re: The Forking Project

As part of a new initiative, the Forking Project (TFP) is to be trialled for a one week period. All steak holders, otherwise known as forks, are to be rationalised due to budgetary considerations. We would like to advise that all forks now be shared to offset budgetary constraints and obligations under the government's Efficiency Dividend.

While one employee is masticating (chewing) another employee can use the fork to pick up their food, and then return it to the aforementioned employee, and so on. This can be achieved with a KPI of a 1:2 ratio.

With additional skills training provided by A. Rort Pty Ltd,the goal is to increase this KPI to a 1:3 ratio as follows: place meat in mouth, pass fork on, pick up meat place in mouth, pass to the 3rd steakholder, so his workflow does not impede the first stakeholder in that order.

This requires precision timing and coordination which will be discussed further at the next Forking Budgetary Task Force meeting which will also include proposals to present to the TFP external consultant Mr I.P. Daly who is oversighting the implementation and will provide a full report on outcomes and recommendations.

Please note demonstrated skills and team building KPIs for the TFP will be reflected in future Performance Appraisals.

All future redundant forks will be sold off at government auction or smelted into re-usable printer cartridges or video conferencing apparati.

Should you have any questions please approach your Forking Supervisor for more information.

How much did that cost the economy Pelican?

Antiseptic, probably not much. Just take a real memo and swap a small number of words. Worth every cent.

R0bert

Ha Ha ,
Houllie,
yeah, my bad. Let me know if you need help with a steak-out.