Thursday 25 March 2010

Fun Online Polls: British Airways & Wealth Creation

This week's Fun Online Poll had a high turnout and a conclusive response, so I'm calling the result now:

"Would you be bothered if British Airways goes bankrupt and is split up between smaller competitors?
Yes - 19%
No - 79%
Other, please specify - 3%


That seems pretty clear cut to me, so no further discussion required. Thanks to the 154 people who took part, as ever.
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As it's a quiet news day, this week's second Fun Online Poll is a general question:

How do people create wealth?

Vote here or use the widget in the sidebar.

9 comments:

Antisthenes said...

Your poll has a flaw, to me the only true answer is starting a business. Working hard and investing wisely is only partially correct because it depends who you work for and what you invest in.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Anti, maybe you start a business with no money but a genius idea and make a fortune without breaking a sweat; maybe you take over a rundown business and flog your guts out; maybe you just buy the right machine at the right time. The end result is the same and indistinguishable.

Plus, there are plenty of business start ups that lose money and fold, so if you're risk averse, being an employee is a much better bet, and so on.

Antisthenes said...

MW Plenty of people have told me I am intellectually challenged and I freely admit that I am. My reading of your poll question lead me to think that you were asking three questions rolled into one and decided they were not compatible as one of the questions was decidedly yes and the other two could be either yes or no dependent on circumstances so my observation was based on that.

Your response suggests to me that I totally misunderstood and what you meant was not what I thought you meant, in which case I put it down to and accept that my command of the English language would benefit from improvement.

Mark Wadsworth said...

A, it's not three questions. I fail to see a real divide between starting a business, working hard [whether as employee or entrepreneur, physically or mentally or in terms of hours] and investing wisely [whether in shares in a business, your own business or your own education], they all boil down to much the same thing AFAIAC.

Antisthenes said...

MW, I think you think I am being sarcastic and taking the piss. I assure you I am not and that is definitely not my attention. I am a simple minded bugger and tend to see things simplistically. What I read into the question was based on this simplistic view I have of things let me explain. Starting your own business speaks for it self it is wealth creation, working hard is wealth creation if you work for a wealth creating organisation it is not if you work for the government, wise investment is only wealth creating if you invest in a wealth creating organisation it is not if your investment is in government bonds say. So you see I was reading your question one way when in fact you did not mean it the way I read it. Of course you could argue that all hard work and sound investment is wealth creating, I would be inclined to disagree but that is another argument.

Antisthenes said...

PS what is AFAIAC?

Mark Wadsworth said...

A, yes, fair point, but it's only a Fun Online Poll, and there is a limit to how many words you can have in the question and answer, I can't right a whole essay!

For example, nine out of ten business start-ups are wealth destruction - but as long as the successful one makes £1 million and the other nine only lose £10,000 each, it is still worth while.

And somebody else might work twenty hours a day trying to build a perpetuum mobile or something = wealth reducing activity. And half the public sector and people in private sector dealing with red tape, e.g. yours truly, are probably destroying wealth as well, however hard they work.

Mark Wadsworth said...

AFAIAC = As Far As I Am Concerned.

Antisthenes said...

MW, Many thanks, I do enjoy your blogs some of them zip over my head at frightening speed, this evenings banter has been quite enjoyable. TTFN