REM%IMSSS@SU-AI.ARPA (Robert Elton Maas) (03/18/86)
C> From: Chuck Simmons <chuck%dartmouth.csnet@CSNET-RELAY.ARPA> C> If the population stays the same size, but each C> person's disposable income increases by a factor of a million, C> they would buy enough goods to justify all sorts of economies of scale. K> Date: Sat, 15 Mar 86 16:52:58 EST K> From: "Keith F. Lynch" <KFL@mc.lcs.mit.edu> K> Not true. No matter how rich I was, I wouldn't buy two copies of K> the same book. Why not? (1) Instead of having to carry it around, you could have a copy at each place you were likely to read it, saving energy of carrying it around and avoid being without it because you happened to forget it. For once-read paperbacks this trades off with having to memorize the page number you are currently reading. For reference books I think many people already have two sets of Knuth AOCP, one in office and one at home, and if books were incredibly cheap I'd have multiple copies of all my reference books myself (with microfiche I'm heading in that direction already; I already have 3 copies each of my diary and most PCNET and Arpanet documentation and most of my personal files, one for home, one to carry around, and one for safe deposit box). (2) Religious zealots buy hundreds of bibles and put them in hotel rooms etc. You could do the same with your favorite books. I knew a fellow at Four Phase where I worked in 1974 who used to give away copies of "Velvet Monkeywrench", and for much the same reason as people who give away bibles (great belief in the book and desire to promulgate the ideas therein). If books were cheap enough I'd probably give away "The Selfish Gene" to everyone I met who didn't already have it, as well as Mandelbrot's fractal-nature book and Roget's International Thesaurus, and maybe even "Third Wave" and "Goedel Escher & Bach". K> I wouldn't buy more food than I could eat. (:- I know some fatties who already violate that, not to mention people with anorexia/bolemia disorder. :-) I agree on that point. K> I wouldn't buy more clothes than I could wear in a week. (:- What about the wife of Fernanend Marcos?? :-) K> I wouldn't buy two copies of the same CD. I assume you mean Compact Disk (alternative to optical disk). Same argument as books, and also for backup if you don't have a copier. K> I wouldn't buy more than one calculator. I carry mine on my wrist, but it's just a 4-function because that's all I can get on my wrist, and it's too inconvenient to remember to pack and unpack a non-wrist one. If powerful calculators (HP/41c or better) were cheap enough I'd have one at home and one at office and one in my backpack for using on the bus. And I'm relatively conservative in terms of spending. I don't even have a color TV yet. I know people who spend like money were going out of style. I bet they'd have three of just about everything if they could afford it, one for home, one for office, and one in their limosine, plus one more for each kid they have. (Stops a lot of fighting if each kid has a copy of a book, even if only one really wants to read it; if one has it the others try to grab it away even if they didn't want to read it in the first place.) K> There is a BIG difference between a trillion people with $100,000 K> each and a billion people with $100,000,000 each. But on the whole I agree with your point, just wanted to offer contrary opinion to some of your evidence.
timothym@tekigm2.UUCP (Timothy D Margeson) (03/21/86)
Hi, Following up on the discussion of why one might have several copies of the same material. I have two copies of my Websters dictionary, one at home and one at work. I have two copies of my Rogets thesaurus, ditto. I have two copies of several types of software, ditto. I guess that I will have two copies of many things for the convienience of not dragging the single copies everywhere I go. I would think there are many of you who take the same opinion for similar reasons. So, perhaps when we are populating space we all may indeed become millionaires. Hooray :-) -- Tim Margeson (206)253-5240 tektronix!tekigm2!timothym @@ 'Who said that?' PO Box 3500 d/s C1-465 Vancouver, WA. 98665