Defying conventional wisdom

Overcrowding: no excuse for complaints


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Defying conventional wisdom
by varjavand
14-Jan-2008
 

I just returned to the United Stats from an exciting short trip to Iran. One thing that grabs your attention more than anything else when you travel to the major cities in Iran is overcrowding, best displayed by chaotic traffic and the proliferation of residential high-rises. Almost everyone complains about this social evil and how the presence of others in big cities like Tehran has made his or her life miserable and how other people do not deserve to live in Tehran.

In other words, they are not shy to express their lack of tolerance for others. They tell you stories after stories about traffic accidents, caused by other careless drivers, and how lucky they feel after returning home from work without being involved in any such accidents. You can see the most visible sign of overcrowding in the streets of Tehran, a colossal number of automobiles moving confusingly, alongside the motorcycles and pedestrians, in any possible directions. Many of them are so noisy in substandard condition.

I was so jittery getting a joy ride from a friend in his brand new Toyota Camry. I asked him, aren’t you afraid of getting involved in an accident? He told me accidents and tickets are the implicit costs of driving your car on the streets of Tehran. A portion of my monthly budget is devoted to such precautionary expenses, he declared amusingly.

In defiance of conventional wisdom, I want to argue that overcrowding should not be viewed as a curse, but rather a blessing. If you decide to live in a crowded city, you do so voluntarily. You enjoy the life amenities that are only available in big cities: restaurants, fast food, cultural events, fancy stores, shopping malls, etc.

You benefit from these amenities at the expense of some inconveniences, and of course higher prices. When I was a student in Tehran nearly 38 years ago, there were no elaborate services that most people enjoy today: fancy electronics, cell phones, SMS, condos, ethnic foods, computers, residential towers. We were lucky to find a typewriter with a delete key so we could erase our mistakes while typing our papers.

People live in bigger cities to earn more income. But, remember the main sources of higher income are other people. We produce wealth and boost our income by using productivity-enhancing technology, and technology is created by individuals. All the life-enhancing ideas originate from individuals.

Therefore, the bigger the number of people who live with you, the better is the prospect for new technology and the greater is the chance for additional income. No doubt, population is the source of technology and economic progress. Only people can discover new ways to transform new ideas into wealth and income generating schemes.

Historically, human life started to improve as soon as we began to live together. We became urbanized, richer and wealthier. We live longer and make more and better products. While we work less, we produce more. Progressive technology enables us to benefit from high-tech products like a refrigerator that can send grocery stores an electronic signal when you are about to run out of milk or meat.

The spillover benefits of population I believe outweigh its spillover costs. However, the advantages of a large population are not automatic. Look at those who live in Dhaka, Bangladesh, or Calcutta in India. Most live below the poverty line. The benefits of population accrue persistently unless improper government policies take them away.

Improper government policies can simply ruin the advantages and create an atmosphere of uncertainty and often chaos. The benefits of creativity and voluntary trade will simply be eliminated. What is left then are the vulgarities of big population. If overcrowding per se was a hindrance, China should be the most backward nation in the word. It is not. On the contrary, it is economically the most flourishing country.

Living in a big city is advantageous not only economically but also otherwise. We like to chat with our neighbors, we borrow things from one another, we do business with each other, and we help one another when a need arises. We draw satisfaction from association. Of course, the only time you wish that I were not living in your corner is when I become a social nuisance, a thief or con-artist, someone who tries to rip you off.

Even though people nag and complain about living in a crowded city, they usually don’t mean it. That is why they live in such cities to begin with. You live in a crowded city because you like the ample of opportunities that exist only in big cities. Doesn’t that mean the crowd? If my courageous brother has eight kids, you benefits from his sacrifice. You gain at his expense. These kids do not make the resources any less available to you. On the contrary, they spend money helping your business, driving the wage rate down, and doing work that many of us don’t want to do.

Whether they are the result of choice or chance, the children are good for the society. They contribute to new ideas; most of them become productive citizens, the future leaders, the movers and the shakers. They contribute to creative ideas, diversity at no costs to the society. All the costs stay with my brother who is responsible for raising them. The resources available to his family will, of course, be divided over a bigger number of kids diminishing the share of each. However, the overall level of resources will not diminish.

In summary, the benefits of more kids are externalized; the costs, however, are internalized. It is, therefore, erroneous to assume that everyone is worse off because my brother has more children. He may be worse off, but society as a whole is not. By having a large number of children, his consumption of resources does not have any impact on his neighbors as long as his kids grow up to be productive; produce and trade. When you contribute to production and trade with others, you make someone better off by giving him/her something that he/she values highly.

The mistaken judgment is that if I were not born, everyone else would be better off. The truth is that if I were not born only the rest of my family would be better off, not anyone else. Everyone else would the same. Unless I am a bandit, my resource consumption has no external cost for anybody in society.

Overcrowding is not a cost to anyone because it is voluntary. You don’t have to live in a crowded city if you don’t want to. Life is like a cell phone, you enjoy it more if there are enough people using it. The more people using their cell phones, the more you enjoy yours. If the only thing I can do is to say “hi” and brighten your day by smiling at you, it is worth to live by me.

Reza Varjavand, PH.D, is Associate Professor of Economics/Finance at Saint Xavier University, in Chicago, Illinois.


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Masonic Ta'ghieh

by Joubin Houshyar (not verified) on

Salaam IrooniIrooni!
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Thank you, agha, but do you really think we have "free markets" here in the West?
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An idea for your consideration:
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The Masonic architects of the Anglo-American system -- which was (did you note?) forced down the throat of "EU" during the GoldmanSachs inflated 'dotcom' "craze" as a "requirement" of "integration" -- were sharp.
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They were also excellent students of human nature. ("Poor Richard", do recall ..)
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So the hypothesis is that an 'advanced' socio-political regime
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(a) recognizes the emptiness of the slogans used to dislodge the 'old order' in Europe (c.f. Iran, 1979 ..) (-- how? Well, they invented them!)
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and
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(b) recognizes the need for (semi) autonomous socio-economic agents as a means of 'accelerating' societal dynamics by providing 'fluidity' in the system (fine grained sand vs coarse grained blocks -- 'companies' vs 'state'/'crown'/'church')
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and
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(c) recognizes that human society (c.f. Jefferson) is, as mentioned, coarse and not smooth.
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and thus devises a Masonic System which both allows for the 'satisfaction' of the actors of lower to near-head layers of society, and, employs fully symbolic means (including a purely symbolic economic exchange token, the backed by nothing but poof Fiat Currency) to create the 'dynamics of a coherent system' which is, when considered, apparently incomplete.
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In other words, Ta'ghieh. Control through obscurity. Slogans not truth.
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I say it is Masonic, because (a) that's whats stamped on everything from money to monuments, and (b) because Masonic systems were in fact invented precisely to create a command and control structure that did not appear 'un-Reasonably oppressive' to its member subjects. Initiations and declared (!) statements are explicitly clear in conveying the fact that what is understood by a certain level of the system is in fact known to be bunk to perhaps even an immediately higher layer.
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Thus, "dismal science". Do you really think that if you randomly ask someone in Western society that can even *remotely* speak intelligently about how the supposedly most important thing in "Western civilization" actually works?
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Does anyone have a clue?
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There is no such thing, as far as I can see, as either "free markets" (in the sense of fully independent actors and un-associated field of action), or, either Rational actors or Rule of Law!
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ECB and Fed just pumped a Trillion+ Euros in under 2 months into the "credit markets". (Free?They are charging interest too! LOL @ 4.4%.
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When you have a system that is built entirely on smokes and mirror, which is the Masonic Ta'ghieh of "free markets" and "rule of law" and "citizen" and "human rights" (not if you are not under the protection of a Sovereign and appropriately flagged, apparently ..), you are not merely talking about irrational actors. The system is structurally opaque but masquerades as a transparent (and "free") system.
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The reason for this is that the top 5% (max) fully recognize the futility of having an actual free and open system! Because of the aforementioned discontinuities.
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So, in order to not suffer the fate of the head-less King and Queen of France, they need a compliant populace. And unfortunately, those of us caught between the un-Reasonable and the greedy 1%'ers must be resigned to live cognizant of the duplicity of the system yet having no other "choice" but to partipate.
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So, if by "certain components" you mean false idealism, coupled with creating a role for the populace as the "Greek chorus" , and a fully theatrical "market system" (complete with "Money Honey" (Remember her?)), which is actually a Monetary Oligarchy under the covers, I would say our own "Islamic" Republic of Qom Incorporated is fairly well on its way!
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(Iran leads the way, as usual .. :))
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/& Salaam!


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Joubin Houshyar ... great points made!

by IraniIrooni (not verified) on

I agree with your argument. Simply put, while Dr. Varjavand basically based his thoughts on the free-market assumption ("voluntary" and assuming that if it gets too overcrowded some will leave ... supply/demand), certain components of that free-market need to first be set in place in order for it to operate efficiently, which of course are not currently in Iran. Of course I am hoping that all of that can improve or change without any bloodshed.


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p.s.

by Joubin Houshyar (not verified) on

Salaam
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Just ran into this book this morning (in the bathroom ):
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//tinyurl.com/2l9p5l
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Which prompted this find (No. Not in the bathroom ;)
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//tinyurl.com/2bwutb
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/& Salaam


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Yet anothe symptom of the gharbzadegi of IRI and its 'planners'

by Joubin Houshyar (not verified) on

Salaam Dr. Varajvand,
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The main assertion supporting your argument is likely not factually supportable. In a centralized system like IRI there is little 'choice' but to gravitate towards the center.
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Another odd assertion you make is the notion of invariant 'unit cost' of family to the social context, regardless of the size of the unit. It seems a somewhat romantic notion of the social structure (and assumed responsibilities) of a modern nation-state (with a substantial welfare component).
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And in closing, please do keep in mind that while aggregation into trans-familial units (tribe, city, state, etc.) clearly promotes synergies and growth (in various dimensions of 'output' -- arts, science, etc.), there is a huge difference between thoughtful concentration and piling on top of one another.
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The specific problem with Iran -- a long standing problem (which one hopes and prays to God is a transitional one) -- is that the Iranian society is not a 'smooth' system. There remains fairly significant discontinuities in terms of education, up-bringing, etc.
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To drive [p.i.] the above point home, consider a thoughtful transportation system which then is utilized (in un-even manner) by its users. Some, God Bless them, will initially recognize the merit of the Rational use of the Rational system. At some point, they will (perhaps literally) run into other users in the same system, which consider the rational design of the system as mere 'guidelines' (at best) and will trivially violate the underlying principles of the system. (One way streets, pedestrian crossings, side-walks as 'buffers', etc.).
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The latter sub-set of users simply do not recognize the merits of the Rational design. And, their violations of reasonable use is viral in nature. Very soon, it will become clear to the Rational users that it is un-Reasonable to continue to adhere to the reasonable use of the system given the prevalence of the not-rational users.
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The overall issue (which is not unique to Iran at all) is that Modernity does not scale. Modern Society assumes Rational citizens. It is a pitifully mistaken assumption.
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Society is not smooth. It is coarse and features discontinuities (generally long standing). The current solution in the West is (apparently) to design for the lowest common denominator, in order to 'smooth' away the discontinuities. This generally means a 'reduction' of quality of life for the 'exceptional' members of society.
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The solution clearly must be organic in nature. Thus, a great place to look for solutions is in the Natural societies of Animals. Animals keep to their species (generally speaking). Lions hang around with lions, and the hyenas with hyenas. When dealing with shared resources, such as the local watering hole, there are strict rules governing priority and access to the shared resource.
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Now animals settle the shared resource problem with the uniquely clarifying instrument of Power and threat of violence.
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This is of course, precisely what happens in the streets of Tehran (or I-66 for that matter;). The aggressive drivers, not bound by any social etiquette due to the anonymous nature of driving, clearly will gain in terms of priority and access at a substantial cost to the non-aggressive driver. Naturally, one hopes that the initially non-aggressive drivers are the more enlightened and rational members of the system. And clearly, being intelligent, they too will recognize the futility of adhering to Rules governing the system.
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But now we are really getting to the core issue: modern society places empowering tools in the hands of its members and the exclusion filter applied is generally fairly non-demanding (relative to the empowerment provided by the tool -- here the automobile) set of criterion. (What does it take to get a drivers license?)
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Iran clearly needs to decentralize. There is a whole lot of empty spaces (and "resources") that could easily be brought into effective service of an Iran of even 100 Million souls. But to get there, Iran needs to address both internal patterns and geopolitical forces which would find a decentralized Iran even easier to dismember and partition.
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I intuit (or perhaps merely hope) that there may be at least one viable decentralized order which also effectively neutralizes external pressures for the dismemberment of Iran Zameen. The key, one proposes, is to mediate a appropriate but substantial subset of social interactions through informational systems (which can then be virtually centralized). Coupled with this, Iran needs to invest heavily in developing other cities in Iran, besides Tehran. Given 5 or 10 regional core cities (of manageable size) it seems one can easily distribute 100 million Iranians over such a 'network of cities' without aggravating the (ever present..) discontinuities and (subsequently) reducing quality of life to that which makes 'sense' (and is palatable) to the least rational members of the nation.
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/R


masoudA

Curious Joe

by masoudA on

Wise advice to our new friends.    Titles will not get anyone too far especialy on forums like this.   Here one needs logic and facts to support it.  

Good job buddy


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Wow, Curious. It is, no

by Anonymous4now (not verified) on

Wow, Curious. It is, no wonder Iran is such a divided nation. No respect. Too much ego.


Curious Joe

Response to Sheytoon and Felfeli

by Curious Joe on

Please remember Relevance.  Relevance to the Original Post (OP).

We have too many chicken-shits on this forum who have not registered their name.  I have.  Neither of you have.

 

Most of these chicken-shits, like you, do not know the alphabet, etiquette nor protocol  of joining a message board.  Please allow me to educate you on a few principals of joining a message board/blog.

 

1-     You stick to the OP’s issue.  You don’t hijack nor take a tangent into another subject merely because you feel pissed by someone’s comment on the OP’s issue.

 

2-     You keep personal issues out of your comment, and focus on the OP’s issue.

 

3-     You don’t bother to Google your way through a poster’s background, and then comment on what he/she said in another forum, within the context of that forum, which has nothing to do with the current OP subject at hand.

 

4-     In these days of Spell-Check, everyone knows how to run one.  If they don’t. is because they have no time or patience.  Please stop correcting other people’s wrong spelling or wrong “English” in an Iranian forum.  Doing so, makes you pedantic, irrelevant and totally out of it – as far as the essence of OP is concerned.

 

I have plenty more lessons/education for you. Let me know if you need more.


masoudA

Someday Soon....

by masoudA on

I hope all Iranians will stop being scared to share what they TRUELY think of what goes on in Iran.   


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To Curious Joe

by Sheytoon (not verified) on

Hi Curious,
Since you claim to be such a sophisticated individual, read the following points:

1 - "I am so glad that I fired so many incompetent PhDs during my managerial background". Where did you learn English?
A - You do not fire PhDs, since they are degrees. You fire PhD holders ...
B - "during my managerial background" is wrong. It is "while I was a manager" or "as a manager" ....

2 - "post doctoral" is not a degree. It is merely a period of research after PhD. Also, no one goes "into" a degree.

3 - The author of this article is a real person. He is neither hiding behind an anonymous name, nor is he trying to blame others for his failures. You just keep your pants up. There is no need to grill anybody.


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Curious Joe

by Felfeli (not verified) on

The follwoing paragraphs are from Curious Joe, who is in his sixties and lives in states:

Read them carefully!! Those who have read his articles on iranian.com, can draw very sad conclusions.

"... I have lived in or visited almost all European countries, all of Africa and middle east, all countries of Far East from Japan to India and Indonesia as well as central America, and of course, all 50 states in USA and Canada ..."

"... Must add that my wife and I have been at too many Hyatts, Ritz Carltons, Hiltons, Sheratons and Marriotts all over the world to merely try another one in Sydney, Melbourne ..."

" ...I suppose what I am saying is that if we make the journey all the way from the US to Uluro, how can I make a connection now with local people so that there will be a private table ready for us at the best spot, with best view at the middle of nowhere, where they will serve us excellent food/drinks and all other amenities that the 5-star hotel only serves in their premises. Do you know the hotel manager/owner so that I can arrange for an unusual request to be arranged way-outside their hotel? ..."

" ...We normally take an ice box filled with Champaign bottles hidden under plenty of ice. We also take crystal glasses, as I refuse to waste good French Champaign by drinking it in a plastic glass or a paper cup. In addition, we take a bottle of non-alcoholic Champaign and few bottles of ginger-ale. We then display the fake bottles outside, while filling our glasses with the real stuff. When the police comes to check what we are drinking (suspecting alcohol consumption), we offer them to join us for a glass of ginger ale or non-alcoholic Champaign. It works every time ..."


Abarmard

A bit different in a third world nation

by Abarmard on

I agree with your concept, if it's in regard to the developed nations. Unfortunately the lack of simple necessities such as post office to mention one, makes many want to live in the city. Some areas have been hit hard economically and farmers run to city to "survive", not by choice. Other than these instances, your main argument is fine.
Thanks


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Hope you enjoyed it.

by Javadagha (not verified) on

I hope you enjoyed your trip to the homeland. There are more things to notice than over crowding. You could have taught a short course at many institutions and let the people get into discussions with you.

Come back again and taste the food, listen to music, and enjoy the beautiful snow (snow is every where this time).


Curious Joe

Forget Bachelor of Science (BS). Look at a Dahati with a PhD

by Curious Joe on

We all know what BS stands for.  Well, MS stands for "More of the Same", and PhD stands for "Piled Higher and Deeper".What a bunch of bullcrap from a so-called "Dr". Reza Varjavand. I am so glad that I fired so many incompetent PhDs during my managerial background.Hey Doctor, are you telling us that having 8 children and the traffic jam in Tehran is a "good thing" for the future of human race?    If you do, then whoever financed your PhD wasted a lot of money for no reason.  I can see you easily on your way into a Post-Doctoral degree in IRI's multiple wives and 72 children.You are probably new to this forum.  Here is a piece of advice.  If you do not have your shit together (in spite of your PhD), and cannot support your argument (POV) with lots of credible references, then don’t bother to express an “opinion” here, because you will get grilled.Your friend,Curious Joe


    

 


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Mr. Varjavand

by Unassociated Press (not verified) on

Thanks for reminding us about the crowded Tehran, and that is what keeps me away from going back and ruining all my good memories.

Perhaps you might be a bit overjoyed because of your short trip, the consequential homesickness and love of mother land. As time passes you might start missing the good old Tehran, that you and I can never have.

The world is full of skyscrapers, but people still love the small towns of Italy, France, Swiss, USA, and Iran.

Having extra children is no longer an asset, it's a burden one carries for his or her selfishness. Have one or two child and zip it up.

Our world is getting tougher to live in, don't ruin it for another creature that will have a long life expectancy. Get a cat, a dog, a robot...

Thanks


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PHD IN ECONOMICS???

by PHCHI (not verified) on

You sure didn't learn anything about economics after a PHD, if you say: "Overcrowding is not a cost to anyone becausa it is voluntary."

and you don't know anything about life if you meeasure its quality by cellphone access!!

I suggest you go back to taking economy 101, sociology 101 and may be philosophy 101 and history 101.

If you still didn't learn , start from elementary school.