oceandude

13 Predictions for 2008

Virginia Tech marketing professor, the "internet types" that don't vote make a conscious decision not to vote because the choices are usually the lesser of two evils (I'd argue they should vote 3rd party, but anyway that's the reality). In other words they are disillusioned.

I can't count how many stories I've seen on the Internet of people that plan to vote for the first time specifically for Ron Paul. Many tales are out there of "selling your soul", i.e. registering Republican, just to vote for Dr. Paul.

The simple truth is that very few politicians understand economics. To them it is purely about taxes. Ironic that no Democrats understand inflation, since inflation is essentially a targeted tax on the poor.

The milk-for-$6 prediction is exactly right. I'm sure the 2008 candidates will be making a big deal out of the cost of milk and bread as the election draws nearer. They'll probably think that Congress can do something about it. Maybe they'll start sending out more food stamps. Yeah right. The only thing Congress can do is to start overseeing the Fed -- a job they've ignored for 90 years.

Waiting for Dell's iPod Moment

There's a fundamental concept that you are missing: Apple is a software company. Dell is a hardware company.

Dell is tied to Microsoft on the software side. Windows is simply crap. You can dress up the hardware all you want but in the end it is still running crappy Windows.

If you want an "iPod moment" from Dell they need to take a hard look at breaking the status quo. Perhaps Dell could help out with improvements in Ubuntu Linux and start pushing that heavily on their gear. Just one idea, but they won't do anything like this because they have no guts.