Ones and Zeros

When I left my last lesson it was after an unplanned use of the simulator instead of the airplane. My airplane’s starter wouldn’t start the engine. It’s been a couple weeks now, but the starter’s replaced. I also asked them to check and signed off an AD (airworthiness directive) on the alternate static air valve. But they found out the valve was stuck and needed replacement.

This a good thing to fix, but it’s just one more expense unfortunately. After all, the starter wasn’t cheap either! The three instruments for airspeed, altitude, and the vertical speed indicator all use the static pressure. The usual static pressure is from a small opening on the side of the plane perpendicular to the airflow. But, if that’s iced up, then those three gauges will stop working correctly. So, an alternate static air inlet is placed inside the plane and activated by a control tied to that formerly-stuck valve.

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We were all gathered in a playground parking lot, about twenty of us, and we were listening to a brief welcome talk and an introduction to what we were about to do. Then we sorted through the tools: pruners, saws, pick-axes and McLeods. I’d brought some tools, but my chainsaw wasn’t required and my other tools seemed a little toy-like compared to these serious heavy-duty trail-building implements.

We were all volunteers today to help build a section of the Potomac Heritage Trail. Some of us were first timers, or practically so, others were members of the PHTA - the association building the trail. They were the leaders. There also was a county official there, and an REI employee. Many of us were there because we heard about today through REI.

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For years now, actually dating back to Reagan’s term, the free market advocates want us to deregulate and let the free market work. Well, the deregulation hasn’t worked well recently. But the real problem is that the “free market” that’s being discussed isn’t actually a free market in the actual economic meaning.

This happens in many fields. A technical term with a precise definition is taken in a more colloquial form and misinterpreted.

Back in Economics 101, a free market was defined as a exchange of products or services where there is a number of equivalently-sized buyers and sellers. All buyers and sellers have pretty much the same amount of control over either the price or the market in general. All the products and services from the sellers are more or less equivalent as well. The market is free in the sense that it is free of control from any particular buyer or seller. But there isn’t really a market like this. The free-market advocates didn’t finish their economics courses.

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This post is a collection of comments on recent events. There wasn’t enough in any comment to make much of a post, but there’s enough comments together to make a new type of post for me: a collection of comments.
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