Tuesday, April 24, 2007

A Proposition to my Blogging Comrades...

In my blogging class on Monday, Miguel (the facilitator) made a very interesting suggestion. He said that, seeing as I had passed the 60-post requirement, I was pretty much free to do what I wanted for the rest of the year. He said I could shut down the blog (which I, of course, have no intention of doing), or possibly donate my excess posts to some of the other class members.

Donate my excess posts? What a novel idea. However, there's a slight flaw in it. I have a limited number of posts to give away. How, then, would I decide who the recipient of my posts should be? I can see arguments for the various sides.
-On the one hand, the people who have less than 20 (or perhaps 10) posts obviously need them the most, because even if they received the full extent of my charity, they'll still have to post more than those with 30 or 40 posts.
-On the other hand, an argument could easily be made for those with the 30 or 40 posts. "We've put more time and effort into our work; we just happen to be a few posts short. Why should people be rewarded for doing less?"

Now, hold on there, buckaroos! This is quite a conundrum, particularly since I don't want to play favorites or anything. Basically, giving away free posts to some and not others would be inherently unfair.

Still, I want to help people out with my excess posts. I will do this using capitalism! One of my fellow classmates suggested that I charge a dollar per posts. I considered it, but then realized that setting an arbitrary price would be inefficient. The basic method of finding out the profit-maximizing price in an open market is with the almighty supply and demand curve. To those who aren't economically inclined, the supply/demand graph shows how many of a certain good people are willing to buy and sell at a particular price. The look for our graph would look like this:

The higher the price is, the more I am willing to sell, but the less others are willing to buy. At the equilibrium point, however, everyone's happy (especially me). Everyone who was willing to buy at the equilibrium price is buying, and those who aren't willing to buy at that price...isn't.

(In all honesty, the actual graph for my blog post market looks a little different; the supply curve should probably be a lot more vertical. However, it makes little difference in practical terms, it may become more horizontal in the future, and [above all else] I'm too lazy to change it, so nyah!)

So, here's how I'm going to do this. I am going to have my excess posts from my 61st until whatever post I'm on when the class ends (or a few days before) up for sale. Keep in mind that a good number of my posts are over 500 words, so that makes life easier for you. This will be done auction-style. Basically, you give me a number of posts you want, and the price-per-post you're willing to pay me. I accept cash, personal check, and PayPal payments.

The starting price is $0.25/post (because as a adolescent male, I loooove quarters), and it can go as high as you're willing to pay. You can put in your bids in the comment section. If nobody bids, nobody gets anything; it's no skin off my greedy back.

Oh, and for those who are a little disheartened about the post requirement and think it's going to be difficult to finish them off, just watch the first 2:50 of this video and let Jack Albertson's singing inspire you (just ignore the kid).



So, for those who want to bid, happy bidding!

NOTE: The preceding post was irrelevant outside of the blogging DeCal and should not have been read by any of my other readers.

4 comments:

Unknown said...

i'll give you $0.25 for your April 1st and April 2nd blogs so I can put up on myspace bulletins.
:)

ASHLEY said...

Is this what our class has come to be.... ? It's a sad world for writers.

Anonymous said...

My egalitarian socialist mind screams "Capitalist pig!"
However, looking at it from an economics point of vew, I'm intreagued. If you make a dollar's profit off of this sca...er, make that useful service, I will be impressed...so impressed, I will hire you as my campaign manager!

-Comrade Chavez

miguel said...

I might just have to take you up on your offer. I'm currently on Post # 11, and given my promise of 60 posts or free pizza, buying your posts just may be cheaper.