Re:My Letter to the Editor of New York Times Magazine
by dredmorbius on Tuesday October 15, 2019 @08:21AM
(#21257652)
There's cost-cutting, and there's risk-shifting.
Unfortunately, accounting methods and markets don't distinguish between these, especially where benefits (or profits) are immediately evident, but costs are occult and obfuscated. This is a situation which appears frequently, repeatedly, and notoriously in technological contexts. I'm seeing it increasingly as a fundamental conflict and paradox of market economics.
The issue can work in reverse as well: measures (practices, products, technologies, services) with immediately evident costs, but distant, obscure, or covert benefits, can be a very hard sell. Maintenance. Employee training. CO2 mitigation.
Unfortunately, accounting methods and markets don't distinguish between these, especially where benefits (or profits) are immediately evident, but costs are occult and obfuscated. This is a situation which appears frequently, repeatedly, and notoriously in technological contexts. I'm seeing it increasingly as a fundamental conflict and paradox of market economics.
The issue can work in reverse as well: measures (practices, products, technologies, services) with immediately evident costs, but distant, obscure, or covert benefits, can be a very hard sell. Maintenance. Employee training. CO2 mitigation.