People have always competed in all endeavors, including sports, the arts, recreation, business, and politics, and unfortunately, violence. Competition for most used to be constrained to their small local circle, or their town, their place of work or industry, or maybe their county and state.
In the past half century however, we have moved into a world of infinite competition where everyone and every organization may end up competing, whether they like it or not, with any other from anywhere. In large part this is due to dramatic advances in transportation and communications, but also evolving government and business viewpoints, recognizing that growth can only come from being more competitive and reaching further. But at what cost? What impact to our lives?
Welcome to infinite competition. This web site discusses many aspects of this important topic. Thank you for stopping by.
Americans want the best health care for free or for their employers to pay for it. But NOTHING is free. Someone has to pay for it. As the nation’s demographics shift toward older Americans, as lifespans lengthen (partly due to the available health care and pharmaceuticals keeping people alive longer) and the variety of expensive technology involved approaches the infinite, and the obvious truth that government run Medicare and Medicaid are going bankrupt, it’s clear this can’t go on. But what to do?
Rationing already exists. Both the government and private insurers deny claims all the time or limit what they’ll pay. It’s the only way to contain costs. The difference right now is the government is in denial and has politicians who must be re-elected so they lie about the real cost. The insurance companies are making vast profits by cleverly packaging care options to avoid expensive claims in many cases. Neither is ideal.
Some truths:
Insurers must make a profit to exist
Government cannot run anything efficiently
Patients don’t care about the cost of care when they don’t see the bill
Many children today are much less active than in times past, spending time texting and playing video games instead of being outside riding a bicycle or playing sports
A bad economy means more people eat poorly or maybe drink more alcohol.
Infinite Competition says:
There must be vigorous private competition, but it must be highly monitored and regulated
The government must provide a health care plan of LAST RESORT for the poor only, and catastrophic care ONLY so it doesn’t compete with private plans
The elderly may have to give up a round of golf a week or a trip to the casino to pay MORE for health care
“tl;dr” is a coloquial abbreviation on internet forums and messages, and means “too long, didn’t read”. A humorous and sarcastic response to someone else’s message being deemed too long.
With blogs and social media, millions now have an outlet for ’something to say’, including this blog. Unfortunately, most people don’t have an ‘editor’ to cut down the less interesting, or often needlessly expansive prose, to just the ‘good stuff’.
This VAST expansion in content is a problem because many articles and messages have some good content, but it’s lost in a sea of text, images, video, etc. Video only is another the way to go, but despite great options like YouTube, many do not have sufficient skill to make a video worth watching (think boring home movies!). YouTube’s 10 minute limit to videos may be a stroke of genius forcing people to “keep it pithy” as Bill O’Reilly would say.
Before this post becomes “tl;dr”, let’s stop right here.
193 nations met in frozen Copenhagen to try to hammer out a verifiable, legal deal to limit greenhouse gas emissions and financial pledges from ‘developed’ nations to ‘developing’ and other nations. In summary: they failed.
Trying to get 193 nations to agree on anything is pretty futile, with so many special interests, cultural differences, negotiating styles, and political agendas.
Ironically, U.S. President Obama, who had flown in to ’save the day’, had to leave hastily to get back to Washington D.C. before a massive blizzard hit the region.
With thousands of limos, private jets, fabulous food and a vast number of attendees, press, security people and protestors, they didn’t even appear to raise the temperature in Copenhagen.
We have lived in a world of vast quantities of postal mail, delivered faithfully every day by dedicated postal workers. The vast majority of postal mail today though is either ‘junk mail’, or ‘bills’.
Most people don’t want junk mail. They don’t really want the bills either, and rapidly increasing numbers are getting, checking and paying bills online instead.
How vast? In 2007, some 212 BILLION pieces of mail were delivered by the U.S. Postal Service (source). But in 2009, that number is projected to be ‘just’ 175 billion, down some 14% (source). While much of the downturn is due to the bad economy, much can also be attributed to a world of new infinite communication, including e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, iPhones, and so much more. With so much communication, postal mail is much less important than it once was.
We also have the rise of spectacular competitors UPS and FedEx, which have put huge pressure on postal services worldwide. The U.S. Postal Service is in a ‘no win’ situation, mandated to not make a profit, and berated when it loses money, which it is always likely to do in tough economic times. Moreover, large and increasing retiree benefit expenses are also causing huge problems.
The cost of delivering postal mail is enormous, quoted as 69 billion U.S. dollars for the U.S. Postal Service in 2006, but getting more recent numbers has proven difficult.
So what to do? Well how about changing the Postal Service delivery to 3 days a week, Monday, Wednesday and Friday perhaps. Pay for mail delivery workers would be cut accordingly, although no doubt the negotiations with unions would be very difficult.
Some say it’s self-destructive to cut back service. That if mail delivery service is reduced, it will encourage even more people to find alternatives, such as online, UPS, and FedEx. So what? Wouldn’t that be a good thing? Especially for environmentalists, so concerned about ‘greenhouse gas’ emissions and not cutting down trees?
It’s no secret that social media is exploding globally.
It’s exploding so fast that governments have no chance to follow what is happening. They can of course impose draconian communication restrictions or even cut off sites, but that’s like putting a dam in front an ocean – it won’t work forever.
Here is a great (fast paced) presentation on what’s happening.
Be amazed, at infinite social media. One consequence is that this is what finally brings down e-mail as we know it.
With the explosion in content on sites like youtube, vimeo, hulu, and many others, and the rapidly expanding “video blog” universe, we are approaching a world of infinite video.
Video conveys a message faster, with more impact and emotion. Humor is more easily conveyed, and audiences won faster.
And online video marketing is making dramatic strides forward.
Almost everyone has bills to pay, and most people still receive at least some of their bills as paper statements or invoices. Businesses spend VAST amounts of money on paper, envelopes, printing, sorting, stuff, and mailing these things out. What a gigantic waste of paper, effort, energy and money. Of course consumers and businesses end up paying for this one way or another in the products and services they buy.
Many companies are relentlessly ‘encouraging’ consumers and businesses to accept electronic (typically e-mail) delivery or notification of new statements or invoices. Instead of the companies saying they’re trying to save money though (that would be too obvious), they ’spin’ it in other ways, telling people to ‘go green’, ‘go paperless’, etc. But most companies couldn’t care less about you, they just want to save money (and increase profits)! Perhaps companies would have more success if they gave consumers a DISCOUNT for going paperless. Between the paper, the printing, the stuffing, mailing & postage, and logistics, perhaps it costs company $1 a bill to send out. So give people a $1/month discount on their phone bill if they go paperless! Perhaps a lot more people would switch.
Google’s rise to search dominance has been accepted and embraced by the masses. Why? The infinite surge in information on the internet meant people needed a SIMPLE, fast, and reasonably accurate way to find relevant and timely information. Google met the need!
But search goes so much beyond what google does, with needs approaching infinity.
Where’s that picture I took? On the internet? On my hard drive? On an external drive? On my phone? On a DVD somewhere?
Where’s that document I wrote?
As much flak as Vista has taken from ‘experts’ and the public (mostly because people don’t want to learn something new after having used XP for too long and because signed drivers weren’t available for old hardware initially), the search capability in it is really good. Click the flag logo (bottom left of the screen usually), and unlike XP, a search box is always present at the bottom of the menu that appears. Type anything in there, and Vista immediately tries to find files, web sites, programs, e-mails, and more, that match what you typed! It’s VERY well done.
In a world of infinite information and data, we need a great search tool. A tip of the hat to Microsoft for getting this right.
With so many people out of work, the competition for the few open jobs is now enormous. As competition for jobs approaches infinity, the importance of a great resume is higher than ever.
Most people are not great writers and do not know how to create a good, let alone great, career resume. So to help people, a seemingly infinite number of web sites are springing up offering people a way to improve their resume. Most of these sites will take an existing resume, edit it, and give it back, for a fee of course. Fees range widely, as apparently do the skills of these service providers!
Many appear to be in far off lands with probably little clue about a customer’s job market or even culture.
A friend, as well as an experienced and successful recruiter, recently launched EmploymentBOOST.com, providing resume improvement services. He knows what employers respond to and what they don’t. He is even getting customers who have used other services already (and did a terrible job!).
Don’t be fooled by low prices, use a service with a real background in HR and recruiting.
In a job market nearing Infinite Competition, your resume is CRITICAL!
The TV news story is repeated so often we all know the script. It goes something like this:
News talking head (NTH): “We now go to Bob Smith at the local mall to tell us how the retailers are doing this holiday season.”
Bob Smith (BS): “Yes, as you can see, the huge SALE signs are everywhere, from 25% to 75% off pretty much everything. This is Carol Jones who is out shopping today. Carol, what are you buying?”
Carol Jones (CJ): “Just some things that are marked way down like clothes and a few other things.”
BS: So these are things you’d be buying anyway, but you’re just taking advantage of the sale?
CJ: That’s right. The prices aren’t that great on other things.
BS (to NTH): There you have it, retailers are trying to entice buying with big discounts but they’re not buying anything beyond that which doesn’t look good for this shopping season. Back to you.
And thus the ‘in depth’ analysis of ALL retailing is summarized. But wait, there’s more. ONLINE sales are STILL skyrocketing. Millions and millions of online purchases are being made by consumers from the comfort of their homes, offices, or cell phones and laptops anywhere. And for the most part, the brick and mortar retailers can’t compete.
It’s not just about price. Consumers like brick and mortar stores for the social experience (going with relatives or friends for example) and actually seeing the merchandise. But that appeal is offset for many by the traffic, parking, crowds, and more.
It used to be that you’d go to the store to get TRUSTED ADVICE on a product. Now, with the vast amount of product and service reviews online, and the pressure to train and pay store employees LESS to save money, advice from the store is about the least reliable or trustworthy.
So for many, if the deal isn’t as good, the information not as good, and the hassle is greater, they simply will avoid brick and mortar shopping if at all possible.
And this trend will continue. Brick and mortar stores will continue to decline. Who benefits? UPS and FedEx!
As much flak as Vista has taken from ‘experts’ and the public (mostly because people don’t want to learn something new after having used XP for too long and because signed drivers weren’t available for old hardware initially), the search capability in it is really good. Click the flag logo (bottom left of the screen usually), and unlike XP, a search box is always present at the bottom of the menu that appears. Type anything in there, and Vista immediately tries to find files, web sites, programs, e-mails, and more, that match what you typed! It’s VERY well done.
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