February 4th, 2004, 5:38 pm
"I'm surprised by your question, since it ostensibly comes from a man who is driven to work in a "car"."No mystery here: like a lot of my 'investments' I have a 'synthetic' 'car' and 'driver.I'm driven in a train mostly, and a taxi sometimes. My 'driver' is a guy who owns a cab, we hold the note on his car, he pays it off in cab service home or to work for us on odd nights when my wife and I are late at the office or I am teaching. Each ride's fare=payment on note. As a Cambodian refugee, his credit with banks was none too good. We knew better. Gotta find alpha where ya can, and marginal utility income on options: i.e. service. Good for us, good for him, the banks were snoozin'.Now that the mortgage is paid off, how many more cabs can I finance and does it equal round the clock service with a high p-score? Do I need round the clock service? hmmm. If I get a job working for Nonius, I can have x more synthetic drivers! yeah!Back to figuring out, low rent, less impressive alpha, with the same utility function but at lower cost that is mutually beneficial.