A total waste of time

by Russ Roberts on March 2, 2010

in Music,Uncategorized

And absolutely beautiful. TY to Ken Tremendous.

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  • Ben
    Rube Goldberg contraptions are seductive to the mind because it grants us total certainty on what is going to happen (if designed corrected), it allows us to literally create and shape future events as we were gods. But if u think about it, even the best contraptions cannot guarantee 100% success, because aside from design flaws there is always the outliers on the distribution graph for (random?) things like earthquakes to interfere with the process.
  • Randomobserver
    If it took Honda six-hundred seven times to get their Rube Goldberg Machine to work properly, it begs a very good economics question. Assuming the government was as honestly motivated as these fellows, and that is a big "if," how many times would it take the government to fine tune their Rube Goldberg economy? Excellent video. Seems to be a hit. 300,000 views in less than two days.
  • Sweet
  • martinbrock
    Beats digging holes and refilling them.
  • I can think of no more shovel-ready project than the creation of such videos.

    WAIT!

    Why give them shovels? We can employ more people using SPOONS!
  • Barbarossa
    SPOON!
  • Marcus
    LOL! That's great! Why didn't I think of that? Instead of shovel ready, we need spoon ready!
  • Barbarossa
    We'll get "The Tic" to spearhead that project. Hey yo! Anyone?
  • That is awesome!
  • EconSchill
    And in my view, it even ties into economics.

    This is an example of a policy-maker's view of the economy is an incredibly complex machine. And within this incredibly complex machine, it's possible to forsee all the consequences. But you can't (no way to predict where all the umbrellas and paper airplanes would land), and it's incredibly wasteful and inefficient.
  • Barbarossa
    You apparently hit on my point already. Damnit. I should read all comments before posting.
  • Pingry
    Do you believe that this Rube Goldberg device is an appropriate analogy to the complexity of an economy?

    --Pingry
  • Don't forget that Honda commercial.
  • Cr@p!! ;-)
  • Username456
  • Username456
    Not completely pointless -- there's an interesting backstory.

    http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/20/opinion/20kul...

    An op-ed from a band member.
  • Barbarossa
    Smart dude. Makes great points.
  • martinbrock
    Awesome analysis. Russ should get this guy on EconTalk.
  • Barbarossa
    Couldn't this video somehow be used to illustrate the complex capital structure of the economy or something? Get creative, Don and Russ. Well my "Muse-ical" work here is done. Hey yo!
  • MnM
    Fascinating. Thanks for sharing!
  • MnM
    I don't know what makes Rube Goldberg Machines so cool, but I'm fascinated by them.
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