Free Lunch
One of the things most adults learn in life is that there is no free lunch. If one does not learn it quickly, one would most likely learn it painfully. However, in most economics textbook, there would always be an apocryphal story about how famous people could eat for free. Some use painters like Dali. The main point of the story was that it was possible to get people to have faith in your cheques based on your reputation. The problem was that this arrangement depends on the person not done anything to diminish his reputation or cause distrust.
Well, why am I brining up with this old story? One of the common thing things in today's world is the rise of the celebrity. If a celebrity (Billionaire, actor, etc) has a point of view, we often give him or her the benefit of the doubt even if the person is not an expert in the field the person is speaking about. I am not talking about politics where most people have an opinion. I am talking about things like diet, health supplements or even investment. The number of celebrities endorsing bad science is quite numerous like those against vaccines. BTW, one reason why I don't follow these stories too closely is that these non-experts have a tendency to change their story. (Now, the version of the story is that the person is Pro vaccine. As long as they are safe. Like doctors are trying to poison us all the time with unsafe vaccines.)
The worst part of the story is that experts are jumping on the bandwagon of ripping off the masses. Last year, I had a young lady who tried to sell me some supplements from an MLM (Multi Level Marketing) company. The best part of the story was that lady proudly told me that one of the directors of the MLM was a scientist who researched and endorsed the supplement she was selling. I am not against people marketing their own inventions. I am fine with Steve Job (when he was alive) promoting his Apple products. However, I would be more concerned if a Minister of Technologies was promoting his own IT gadgets. The conflict of interest was quite blatant to say the least. What really turn my opinion of the scientist was that the scientist was working with an MLM company.
Now, I have nothing against MLM as long as they are not always creating new companies and leaving behind a trail of upset stakeholders. And in about a 100 days time, the US of A may have a president who was involved in Trump Networks, an MLM company that promised to be recession proof but was sold a few years later. And the best part of the story is that in the RNC (Republican National Convention) invited a small business owner touted as employing more than 100,000 people. BTW for those people who know nothing about small businesses, Apple has about 97,200 employees. It turned out that the lady was just an independent retailer with no employees. If the next President of the US of A needs to have an MLM distributor endorsing him, I see a bleak future for America.
"At least a monster there has the decency to look like one." Terry Pratchett.
Well, why am I brining up with this old story? One of the common thing things in today's world is the rise of the celebrity. If a celebrity (Billionaire, actor, etc) has a point of view, we often give him or her the benefit of the doubt even if the person is not an expert in the field the person is speaking about. I am not talking about politics where most people have an opinion. I am talking about things like diet, health supplements or even investment. The number of celebrities endorsing bad science is quite numerous like those against vaccines. BTW, one reason why I don't follow these stories too closely is that these non-experts have a tendency to change their story. (Now, the version of the story is that the person is Pro vaccine. As long as they are safe. Like doctors are trying to poison us all the time with unsafe vaccines.)
The worst part of the story is that experts are jumping on the bandwagon of ripping off the masses. Last year, I had a young lady who tried to sell me some supplements from an MLM (Multi Level Marketing) company. The best part of the story was that lady proudly told me that one of the directors of the MLM was a scientist who researched and endorsed the supplement she was selling. I am not against people marketing their own inventions. I am fine with Steve Job (when he was alive) promoting his Apple products. However, I would be more concerned if a Minister of Technologies was promoting his own IT gadgets. The conflict of interest was quite blatant to say the least. What really turn my opinion of the scientist was that the scientist was working with an MLM company.
Now, I have nothing against MLM as long as they are not always creating new companies and leaving behind a trail of upset stakeholders. And in about a 100 days time, the US of A may have a president who was involved in Trump Networks, an MLM company that promised to be recession proof but was sold a few years later. And the best part of the story is that in the RNC (Republican National Convention) invited a small business owner touted as employing more than 100,000 people. BTW for those people who know nothing about small businesses, Apple has about 97,200 employees. It turned out that the lady was just an independent retailer with no employees. If the next President of the US of A needs to have an MLM distributor endorsing him, I see a bleak future for America.
"At least a monster there has the decency to look like one." Terry Pratchett.
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