At the bottom i clicked “Comment on this answer” and i only have 1 comment: Too long.
I like Dex, but he reminds me of several priests i have listened to over the years in church giving homilies. And reading and trying to remember the stuff Dex writes is like trying to remember 25 minutes of homily that just drags on and makes the audience sleep and balance their checkbook. The first 5 or 6 paragraphs were good, then i started thinking about going back to the barter system and forgetting all about currency and exchange rates making me forget what i had already read.
I’ve edited to provide a link to the Staff Report under discussion. --CKDH
Pay no attention, Dex. Just because most 'Merkins today have attention spans suited only to tv commercials doesn’t mean you have to kowtow to that abbreviated mentality. Some questions cannot be answered intelligently in a sound bite, and you do a good job of handling them.
Well, although supply and demand may be a short enough answer for you, it isn’t really correct. So I suppose the person asking the question wanted to be as informed as possible. Alas, you can please some of the people all the time…
You’ll notice that he broke his answer up into sections? That’s partly so, if after reading the first section, you decide you understand, you can say “OK, here’s a good stopping point”. If you read more than you’d have liked to, you’ve nobody to blame but yourself.
I know, I know. The problem is that I pick topics that have a great deal of complexity to them. I’m not always that way. I’ve done very VERY long ones (like the famous "Who Wrote the Bible?
series) but my shortest is about Scrooge McDuck vs Bill Gates … just to prove that I don’t always drone on and on. It’s the topic.
Actually, I did the same thing as Slick as in I clicked on the ‘comment’ link…but strangely enough, I did so with the intention of commenting on how much I like Dex’s answers because they are so detailed. When Dex gives you an answer, that, by gum, is an answer.
With all due respect, Slick, most of the public speakers (pastors and otherwise) I’ve heard who went on at great length did so because they were rambling. Dex’s work, however, isn’t long because he’s rambling - it’s long because he’s packing in a lot of information. Yet as was mentioned in a previous post, he always organizes his information extremely well. I find it very easy to follow, even thought I do slow down to absorb and ponder.
In any event, as someone who barely dabbles in financial stuff and is always looking to find out more, I thought it was a great piece. Dex, thanks for the research and the explanation. Wish I’d had you in Econ 201 instead of the graduate assistant with the incomprehensible accent who mumbled everything into the board…<sigh>
Gee, if you think Dex’s reports are too long, you shouldn’t bother even trying to read mine. My next coming staff report is a little longer than Dex’s current one, and the one I’m composing now is coming close to that mark. I could have answered either question in three short words (“Nobody really knows” and “Either is correct”).
When’s the last time the preacher gave you back money from the collection plate just because the service was too long? But if our homilies are too long for your delicate attention to span, we of the SDSAB offer a complete 110% money-back guarantee. How can we can afford to make this generous offer to you the customer? We make up for it in volume.
Man that is perhaps the longest answer I have seen fro Uncle Cecil in a while!!! I thought I heard some where that the richest country, as per GPN, was Kuwait. They have free medical care etc. Can any one comfrim this?
Not based on “GNP” (gross national product) but possibly based on per capita income. When you have a few very, very, very wealthy oil shieks and a small population, then the “average” annual income is still very high.
However, this question is kind of off the topic, Melkor.
And, that was NOT an answer from Cecil. Staff Reports are written by membersof the Straight Dope Science Advisory Board.