Item I: Wednesday night I was at dinner in New York and talking to a girl from the Netherlands who was born in Iran and an ethnic Persian. I mentioned to her that Iranian-Americans are one of the most prosperous demographic groups in the U.S. and asked if it was a similar case in Holland. She said no and provided the following explanation:
Item II: Walking by a small, independent bookshop yesterday I wondered aloud about the viability of such businesses, noting the recent price war between Amazon and WalMart.com as well as Amazon's recent introduction of same day delivery in select cities. One of my Dutch friends responded that in the Netherlands books are sold at a fixed price -- with the government's blessing -- which prevents such competition from taking place.
Who benefits more from such government intervention, consumers or businesses?
In Europe we have a really good social safety net and so people don't have to work and we get a lot of lazy people. In the U.S. you guys have a, well, more crappy social safety net so it forces people to work a lot harder.Given the differing results each system has produced, which one is really "crappy"? Which one is truly more compassionate?
Item II: Walking by a small, independent bookshop yesterday I wondered aloud about the viability of such businesses, noting the recent price war between Amazon and WalMart.com as well as Amazon's recent introduction of same day delivery in select cities. One of my Dutch friends responded that in the Netherlands books are sold at a fixed price -- with the government's blessing -- which prevents such competition from taking place.
Who benefits more from such government intervention, consumers or businesses?
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