Source: SpaceX undercut ULA rocket launch pricing by 40 percent: U.S. Air Force
The U.S. Air Force will save 40 percent by buying a GPS satellite launch from Elon Musk’s SpaceX compared with what United Launch Alliance has been charging, the head of the Space and Missile Systems Center said on Thursday.
This is why competition is necessary.
And what should be done about it?
It says “of Software Development”, but really it’s applicable to any project.
I think it is interesting to consider *when* each of these concepts was coined, relative to the others.
Source: 15 Fundamental Laws of Software Development
From Occam’s Razor to Parkinson’s Law of Triviality, let’s discuss some of the most useful adages and quotes in the world of software development.
Source: Advanced Economies Must Still Make Things – IEEE Spectrum
Take away manufacturing and you’re left with…selfies
At the end of 2015, Facebook, that purveyor of updated selfies, had a market capitalization of nearly $300 billion, about 50 percent more than Toyota, the world’s premier maker of passenger cars. … manufacturing is still important for the health of a country’s economy, because no other sector can generate nearly as many well-paying jobs. Take Facebook, which at the end of last year had 12,691 employees, versus the 344,109 that Toyota had at the end of its fiscal year, in March 2015. Making things still matters.
The top four economies remain the top four manufacturing powers, accounting for about 55 percent of the world’s manufacturing output in 2015.
If you rank countries by per capita manufacturing value, then Germany, with more than $9,500 in 2014, came out on top among the big four, followed by Japan with nearly $7,000, the United States with about $6,500, and China with only $2,100. But the global leader here was Switzerland, with more than $15,000 per capita.
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The net balance of international trade in manufactured items is also revealing because it indicates two things: the extent to which a nation can satisfy its need for products and the demand for its products abroad. Switzerland again came out on top, with a 2014 per capita surplus of about $5,200, followed by Germany with $5,100 and South Korea with nearly $4,400. The United States, however, had a manufacturing trade deficit of about $1,800 per capita.
Source: Too much of a good thing
Profits are too high. America needs a giant dose of competition
Though American companies now make a fifth of their profits abroad, their naughty secret is that their return-on-equity is 40% higher at home.
Business spending on lobbying doubled over the period as incumbents sought to shape regulations in ways that suited them. The rising importance of intangible assets, particularly patents, has meant that an ability to manage industry regulators and the challenges of litigation is more valuable than ever.
