Profit, a Force For Good

This morning I awoke to the bewailing of some NHS employee (I forget her exact position) about the profit motive involved in the despicable government scheme of using tax payers money to help fat, lazy fuckers lose some weight  (this was on BBC news, there is a related article posted here too).

But she doesn't seem to share the same complaints as me, in fact she was more than happy to explain the benefits achieved, courtesy of the taxation used to pay for this project.  What she was unhappy about was the profit made from this scheme by private companies.

I can understand that people may feel uneasy about individuals making profit of the sick, but people make a profit from many other more important aspects of living.  Farmers and supermarkets make millions from one of lives most essential requirements, food.  Various other companies make profit from water, fuel to keep your homes warm, etc.  Why is health care a forbidden fruit that private enterprise isn't allowed touch?  Personally I cannot see a good reason, simply some misguided attachment to an expensive and wasteful system.

I'm getting quite sick an tired of hearing this pointless complaint to be honest, profit is not some phenomenon of "corporate greed", we all do it.  The pay check that NHS employees (and all other employed people for that matter) take home at the end of the month doesn't just cover the costs of necessities required for you to work (food, transportation costs, etc).  You are paid a little more (or maybe substantially more) to spend on life's luxuries like a holiday, a new kitchen or to save for a rainy day, this may be familiar to you as disposable income.

How does this differ from a company retaining extra profit on top of its basic running costs?  It doesn't!  Businesses make a profit to help them through tough trading periods (savings), to buy a new factory or increase productivity (just like a new kitchen) or to reward employees and shareholders with a bonus (just like your holiday).  Is this really that great an evil?  Businesses are run by people, for people, they don't just appear to suck up cash for the sake of it.

Referring back to the BBC article, the profit motive is helping to providing a service that the NHS can't.  Even though I disagree with the principle of this scheme it demonstrates a clear example of the free market benefits constantly touted by intelligent economists.  The potential reward and risk reimbursement earned by the people who developed these weight loss products & schedules is the only reason they exist.  Without the profit motive who would be providing these services, certainly not the NHS?

There are many other benefits associated with a free market system, not all of them profit motivated, which perhaps I'll get into another time.

It's Good to be Back

I can't believe where the last month has gone, university is finally over and now the unshielded challenges of life really begin.  The lack of blogging over the past month has been due to an absolutely manic scramble to complete my dissertation, hand in a mountain of essays and plough through exams fuelled on little more than red bull.  But its all over, and what a relief.

A lot has happened in my absence and a great deal of writing opportunity has been missed; Rally Against Debt, a huge correction in the price of silver, announcements of Republican Presidential candidates (Ron Paul in particular), further Greek debt woes, protests in Spain, the killing of Bin Laden, the introduction of the minimum wage in Hong Kong and many other events I can't recall off the top of my head.   I won't be taking the time to back track on all this though, plenty of other bloggers have covered these topics to death already, but that doesn't mean I don't have plenty to write about.

I'd like to restart this blog with a little section on university education (a rather fitting topic I suppose), although the issue of tuition fees has fallen from the headlines I would like to offer some advice to any students looking towards a future in higher education.

My experience at a pretty average university has taught me a lot of things and not just course related material.  Firstly that even at just £3000 a year (plus tax later in life of course) the education I received was probably not worth it.  I've learnt a great deal but mainly from books and reading in my own time, my lecturers were intelligent and helpful enough but I found the whole experience rather unchallenging.  This probably doesn't apply to some of the better universities and you certainly can't practise medicine or law without a degree, so keep what I write in context.

I honestly believe, at least academically, I would have been better off spending £3000 on books and equipment of my own and just experimenting with electronics myself.  It would have cost less and probably taken a fraction of the time to learn what I have.  There is of course the obvious benefit of being able to take any problems you have to a lecturer and the nice certificate at the end of the course to prove you can do it, but so what?  The Internet is awash with experts and sources of knowledge far exceeding that of a single university and the proof of your ability is in what you can build (in my case) and demonstrate to potential employers, why not just build a website advertising your abilities to the world?

I suppose it boils down to how you want to spend your life, I have found that I have very little desire to work for anybody else so my academic study may just go to waste.  My interests, passions and views on my life have changed drastically over the last three years, in fact probably over the last couple of months too.  I have over £21,000 worth of debt and gained very little that I could not have found out myself & I'm left with knowledge I may not even decide to use, I do feel like a little bit of a chump. 

Looking back there are so many better things I feel that I could have done with my time and a debt this large, so this would have to be my warning to other potential students.  University is an expensive way to discover your passions, your life's ambitions and I probably think this is a natural part of the transition to adulthood.  Perhaps you could argue that my time at university helped me grow and realise all this (I would agree to some extent), but at a cost of over £40,000 for a student starting next year I would urge you to carefully consider exactly what you want to get out of the three years, not just academically but with a view to sculpting the rest of your life.  University is a big decision and three years of youth that you can never get back.