How Does One Create Value?

This Christmas morning I woke up asking myself the abstract question: "How does one create things of value?"

Millions of people engaged in gift swapping this morning. I suspect that very few of the gifts will have any enduring value. Memories created at Christmas might endure, but in our hectic world even that is questionable these days.

I actually ask this particular question thousands of times. Whenever I am working on a job, I ask myself multiple times if the work I am creating is of value to the customers.

When I create web sites and blog posts I ask if I am engaged in an activity that is creating something of value.

Most blog posts are just mindless punditry. IMHO, mindless punditry not only is a waste of time. Many people engaged in punditry do little more than create or amplify division. The creation of division is a net negative.

The current project I am working on focuses on the question about how one creates value and how one measures that value.

I decided to put off details about the project until after Christmas. For today, I simply wish to wish to throw these two questions to the wind:

• How does one create value?
• and how do we know if the things we are doing are creating value?

Merry Christmas All!

Code Name: Investor's Museum

I confess. The projects I've worked on haven't worked out very well.

Perhaps the ideas are too grand.

So I decided to try a new idea. This is an idea that can fit in a room or that can line a blank wall in a hotel.

The purpose of the idea is to raise awareness of the importance of ownership. I've given the project the working title of an "Investor's Museum."

The goal is to create a museum filled with interesting items. The items in the investor's museum are owned by people in the community and entrusted to the museum.

Imagine a room filled with interesting objects such as paintings, antique furniture, collectibles, historical artifacts and other items of interest. Each item would have a number and a QR code. Taking a picture of the QR code loads a page about the item. The page would have a description of the item, an appraisal value. The page would also include software that allows patrons to bid on the items. The bidding contract restricts the buyer from taking the item out of the museum. The buyer will place a new price on the item.

The investor's museum is a game. The museum creates a market where people can buy and sell art pieces in a controlled setting.

The information about the different items would be displayed on web pages. These pages should become a valuable reference tool for people who buy and sell antiques as the pages would give some clue as to how the price of artworks vary with time.

This particular project can be implemented without substantial cost. To get the program going, one would need a room in a shopping mall or shopping center. There is a great amount of vacated retail space on the market right now.

The items for the museum would come from the thousands of people who have interesting items in their attics and garages that they would be willing to sell for a good price.

The basic program for the web pages and bidding process is easy to write. The software that handles the money would be difficult.

I am not going into the full details of what the project is doing. The basic idea that I want to put forward in this first post is that the investor's museum would be a privately held museum. The items in the museum would be owned by the public at large. Each of the items would have appraisal and pricing information so that people can learn how the prices of antiques and artworks vary with time.

Why I Stopped Blogging. BTW the Tax Reform Bill is Lame

I've been writing blog posts. I've just stopped posting them.

People have become shrill. People don't seem interested in engaging in substantive debate. It is all about attacking enemies and diverting attention for the flaws of one's friends.

Anyway, the Trump administration is pretty much going as I feared. The left has gone berserk. To make things worse. The Trump Administration has not created any substantive legislation.

The GOP passed a tax reform bill, but the bill doesn't take the steps necessary to restore the small business sector of our economy.

It is better than nothing, but not much better.

The GOP's tax plan is a basic effort to flatten a tax. The mathematics of a flat tax is compelling. A flat tax reduces deductions allowing the government to lower the over all tax rate.

Deductions are created by powerful groups. A flat tax reduces the deductions used by powerful groups to maintain their wealth.

The problem with a flat tax is that powerful forces that created the deductions still exist. These groups will slowly weasel their way back into power and will recreate the jagged tax structure.

Tax flattening is only a temporary fix.

The GOP's tax reform is only a temporary fix.

I would love to go into a dissertation about how we could fix taxes and health care in ways that would lead to substantive changes in our society. Such a dissertation would involve a substantive debate about taxation and money. I fear that people in the conservative movement aren't up to such a discussion.

Anyway, I decided last night to work on a less substantive issue which I will announce in the next blog post.