ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax
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Canon announced today that they will begin to phase out film photography equipment. They are following Nikon and Konica/Minolta in that. Meanwhile silver is spiking a fever. It is over $12.50/oz after years of sitting at $4.50. Beyond that x-ray films are really heavy and hard to transport and store.
Digitization has lowered costs in other industries and it will in x-ray diagnostics also.
Wait... Does "digital" in this case mean "electronic using ones and zeros" or "using fingers"? Because the latter is pretty cheap.
Digitization has lowered costs in other industries and it will in x-ray diagnostics also.
Eventually, perhaps. But Nikon doesn't have the FDA around to prevent Canon or other companies from making digit photography equipment. It also doesn't have a humongous customer (i.e., the government) who uses a crude and relatively inflexible pricing schema.
I suspect that you are correct, and in 20 years, everything will be digital and there will be lower costs as a result. But our medical reimbursement system almost seems designed purposefully to maximally stretch the length of time until that will happen. In the meantime, this is going to increase costs because of all of these artificial rigidities.