Economics of Sharing

A large quantity of university students live in shared accommodations. They pay the rent independently and usually share the bills (which usually include electricity, gas, garbage collection or Internet access fees) with their flatmates. As a sharer of the bills, will you tend to consume more goods and services in the bill list or less (which, of course, do not reach the peak of the marginal utility curve) since you only need to pay a portion (probably not a large portion) of the cost.

It seems a rational decision to consume more because you own the whole utility gained from the consumption but only need to pay part of it. Suppose that you have 3 flatmates and the price of electricity is 1 euro per KWh. If you use the electrical appliance, which consumes 1 KWh of electricity, you get the benefit which is worth 1 euro, but you only need to pay 0.25 euro for it. Does it mean you earn 0.75 in this transaction? But we should consider the lost which may issue from the increased consumption by your flatmates due to the same consideration (do not forget you are the loser in their winning transactions based on the same theory). 

This is the economics of sharing. The key feature of the phenomena is that a portion of the cost of your consumption is paid the others, and you pay for a portion of the cost of their consumption. They cannot control the cost they pay for you and analogously, you cannot control the cost you pay for them. This is an interesting issue needs further thinking. Maybe we can get some inspirations from the game theory.

Random Thought during My Illness

I got a cold and had a sore throat and itchy eyes on Friday morning and started a fever that afternoon. Next day, I took a turn for the worse and the sore throat became more serious. I felt tired and run down. My body hurt all over. I also had severe head pains. My body temperature turned higher. I tried to read something, but I cannot concentrate. I did not take any medicine (actually; I refuse the medicine, especially the western medicine, due to its side effect). I will not take it unless have to. And I believed that I will recover soon, just like before. I am proved right again. I felt much better next morning. My body temperature became normal and the head pains disappeared. This is self-healing, a manifestation of the self-adaption of my body system.

Though I played Taichi in the early morning of Saturday, I had not played it regularly for 3 weeks. I was in poor condition. My body lost the balance of Yin and Yang as the Traditional Chinese Medicine says. In some conditions, the body system can return to the balance of Yin and Yang. Mostly, medicine is needed to create such conditions. 

People are weak and fragile when they are suffering. Even a strongest man will become the piteous girl. I thought of my wife, my mother and father, my brothers and sisters, and even all the other people who helped and may help me when I was at the worst. That may be the most reason why people need a family. That is the best and may be the only place you can heal yourself.

First Sense of Complexity Science

Complexity science is the subject for which one can explore all the life. It may rewrite the whole science, the economics and even change the way people think.

The world is recognized as a dynamic and non-equilibrium system with uncertainties, a contradictory unity. Any specific phenomenon is a connection of necessity and chance, regularity and randomness. There are at least four features of complex system. (1) Non-linearity. The explanation given by academician Guangzhao Zhou is quite clear, which states that a system is regarded as non-linearity if the action and the result of the action is disproportional. In the real world, no relationship is actually linear unless people define it for some reason. (2) Dynamics. Nothing is absolutely static. We can seize some features of a object due to its relative statics, which is just a section of dynamic process. Thus, it is unreliable to set the stability or equilibrium as the objective of research. Changing economy, if in the benign direction, is much better than the stable or optimized one. (3) Adaptivity of the agents. There are frequent interactions among the agents in the complex system. They can self-restrain and self-organize. They can adapt themselves to the change or shock from outside world to some sentence. And they can self-evolve as well. (4) Openness. The system keeps exchanging information (including energies and materials) with the outside system(s). It changes the environment and be changed by the outside environment. Actually, the information exchange offers what the system needs to evolve or even mutate.

Since the phenomenon is so complex and the stability and equilibrium are not qualified to be what we pursuit in the model any more, what should be the questions we try to answer in the research, or in other words, what should truth look like? Without deep thinking, I guess what the researchers should figure out is how the system work, or say, how the elements we cared about act in different dimensions. Is there a law demonstrates how they act (in the specific period and space) and what is the law? The different dimensions here refers to the different angles we observe the phenomenon. The phenomenon shows us different statements if we see it in different ways.

One of the biggest problems is, if a lot of elements are considered in our research, at least two difficulties will come up. First, the issue will be too complicated to solve by the current methods. Secondly, the conclusion we gain will be very indirect and becomes not so valuable due to the complication of the issue and too many hypothesises even if we solve it successfully. My further guess is we can simplify or abstract all the qualities of a system into two types. One is positive, the other is negative. One reflects the contradict side of the system, and the other one reflects the unified side of the system. Everything is syntheses of contradictions, which consist of contradict part and unified part. The quality comes from the contradict parts leads to the changing of the system, and the attraction to the outside elements, while the qualities shown by the unified parts makes the system stay the same and reject the outside world. Why not divided all the natures of an object into two sides which are contradict one and unified one (or positive and negative, or Yin and Yang, or any other names you like)? Tradition Chinese Medicine (TCM) defines all the qualities of the tissues in the body as Yin or Yang, and thus converts all the relationships relative to the body and its environment into the relationships between Yin and Yang. You see, it solves the problems of health well. And now some western doctors even said that only the TCM can cure the cancer. In Marx’s economics, all the elements in the economy are classified to either productive forces or relations of production. To some extent, we can say his theory provides a better explanation of economic than contemporary prevalent economic theory.

The next problem maybe how two model the 2D world. Well, this is exactly what we should figure out, we cannot go any further. Actually, some attempt has been done by Chinese scholars.

Economics in Student Rambler

Student Rambler is widely used by students in Dublin. Swiping this card on the smartcard reader, the holder can travel an unlimited number of journeys on Dublin Bus. The current price of a 30 Day Student Rambler, which is valid for 30 calendar day, is €82.00. So, averagely, the one-day cost of the ticket is €2.74 regardless of the time value of the price of the ticket and the convenience gained from no need to prepare small changes. If the journeys you travelled in a day worth more than €2.74 by paying changes, you will be better off through using Student Rambler. If you travel more, you will gain more. The benefit you gained over the price of Student Rambler has the quality of economic rent, which can be regarded as the "excess returns" above "normal levels". The amount of the economic rent of Student Rambler here is the difference between the actual benefit you gained from using it and the opportunity cost of it, which can be considered as its price. For instance, a round trip between UCD and City Centre costs  €3.3( a single fare is €1.65), which is the actual benefit you gained if you use Student Rambler in a day. While the price of the Student Rambler, as mentioned above, is €2.74 per day. Thus, the economic rent is €3.3 - €2.74 = €0.56. The amount will increase as the value of the journeys you travelled and is irrelevant to the price of Student Rambler.

There is also economics on the choice of using the Student Rambler or paying cash. Take my experience for example, I travel to and fro between my house and UCD every day. The price of a single journey is €2.3. Since I can save €1.86 (2.3*2-2.74) every day, buying a 30 Day Student Rambler is a rational choice for me. One afternoon when I planed to come back home, I found I had forgotten my Student Rambler, which I had used in that morning, in the office the time I got into the bus. Since my office is 15-minute walk far away and I did not want to miss the bus, I decided to pay cash(€2.3) for the journey. I thought I just lost the value of what I paid when I made the decision, but the story did not end there. Next morning, I needed to pay another €2.3 to travel to UCD(remember my Student Rambler was still in the office). And the point is, when I came back home that afternoon, I still should pay cash for my journey rather than use the Student Rambler, although I already had taken it with me that time. The reason is the cost of the Student Rambler (€2.74) is higher than the price a single trip ticket. The benefit is that I saved the one-days cost of Student Rambler. Therefore, my total loss of decision of not fetching the Student Rambler on the first day is €4.16 (2.3+ (2.3*2-2.74)), which is much more than what I thought. The decision to pay cash for the journey when I already had got the Student Rambler when I went back the second day involves the sunk costs, which refer to the costs that have already been incurred and cannot be retrieved. These should not normally be taken into account when making a decision, because they cannot be recovered either way. It is a common instinct to count them, however.

Some Significant Chinese Comics

Translating into English, many Chinese cartoons make sense as well. Here are some.

No. 1 You Are Not VIP

You are not VIP ! You are even not IP !!

You are only a P !!!

No. 2 Three Keys to Success

1st: Persist; 2nd: Have no sense of shame;

3rd: Persist in having no sense of shame.

No 3 Stay up late & Get up tired 

You stay up too late for having no guts to end a day;

 you get up too tired for having no guts to start a day.

No 4 Youth and Hygienic Tissue

Youth is just like hygienic tissue.

It seems much, but little when using it.

No 5 Never Meant to Go Back 

 Once I come to the world, I never meant to go back with life!

No 6 Life Rounds off Our Sharp Corners 

 Life rounds off all the sharp corners of us, 
So that we can roll further away!

No 7 Throw the Handle After the Blade

Once you start to throw the handle after the blade,

You will suddenly find the world  is so spacious.

No 8 Once Thinking of the Coming 2012

Thinking of the money I owe the bank,

I can laugh out even while having a dream.

First DSP Meeting, Lecture and Language

The meeting with my supervisor and DSP chair this afternoon really encourages me. It shows me that my situation is regarded, the difficulties I encountered are noticed and my hard-working is confirmed. As a foreign newcomer here, I feel I am cared about by someones. They suggest me turn them for help and ask them questions freely, which remind me that I am in a team and not alone.

After 4 weeks' study, I gain some tips about how to follow the lectures better. The most important step, in my case, is preparing lessons before class. You need to pick up the key words and get familiar with them, especially the pronunciations, so that you will not miss them in the class. You can practise by repeating many times. What's more, tick the points you cannot understand or feel confused so that you can pay more attention to them in the class or ask the questions to the lecturer or classmates. I the class, you should pay very close attention to the lecturer. Acclimatize yourself to the his/her accent as soon as possible and take the front seat so that you can hear the lecturer more clearly if necessary. I do not think it is a good idea the record the lecture, because it is time consuming and you may relay on the recordings too much. But I appreciate the tradition of asking questions in the class as most western students do, although it needs a lot of encourage for a Chinese student. After class, it is quite necessary to review what you learnt through practising, doing assignment or homework, discussing with other people, referring to other materials, etc..The more, the better. Anyway, practice makes better. Try to make sure all the knowledge points understood and configurate the knowledge structure or knowledge tree of the sections and then the modules. This is actually what I did before, I should do this with the modules in totally English environment now. Furthermore, try to connect the knowledge of different subjects and find the over-leaped and interlinked parts. Most importantly, keep thinking about how to apply what you learn into your research.

Some specific suggestions to improve the language. (1) Simply organize the words before you speak and speaking slowly and clearly. Make sure people can understand you. (2) Try to talk with the native speakers at any  suitable situations. Do not scare to speak with other people. (3) Listen to the speakers, such as the lectures in class very carefully. Never give up. You may catch more even if you cannot hear anything at the beginning. (4) Discuss the expressions which confuse you and cannot be figured out by looking up the dictionaries with the local people.

A NEW BOLG

Persisting writing something would be quite helpful for my language and study. So I open this blog and plan to renew the posts at least once a week.Hope this is a good beginning.