Things I Don't Get from The Media

So our friend journalist talked to Purnomo (10), Hamsidik (10), and Tino Saputra (12), and conclude that for street children like them, praying (shalat) is a luxury. Our friend journalist also wrote that:

During Ramadhan fasting month, they are not always able to fast because they have no money left for the early meal (sahur). The money they got during the day is always handed in to their parents. (but) The food bought out of that money sometimes finished before the next day's sahur.

Did you see the logic breakdown here?

If you don't fast, you eat during the day. And to eat, you need money to buy or make food. Yet, you managed to give the earned money left to your parents by the end of the day, that sadly, still couldn't cover the sahur meal. If that's the true reason for not fasting, can I propose something like delaying the daytime meal, save the money, and now, sahur is affordable?

I don't blame them for not fasting since life on the street is physically hard (beside, who am I to judge?). I also don't blame them to come up with that kind of excuse or logic, because they are 10 years old. But I have problem with a journalist who think that you can take such excuse from the 10 years olds at face value.

By the way, kudos to the organizer of the said pesantren (retreat) for street children.

On Being Jakarta's Number One

For any Jakarta's Governor, perhaps, the most relevant and politically sensitive issue is the traffic jam. If he/she can get rid of it, he/she will be remembered, and if allowed by law, reelected for the next term.

Now, if the higher authority decides to increase the gasoline price without his/her consent, should he/she curse the the policy or, silently, praise it?  

If I were he/she, I would do the latter. Higher gasoline price reduces the use of private cars, hence less traffic jam. And when my people get mad because of the price hike, I would shrug my shoulder, and point out that it wasn't I but those guys who did it.

And I don't get why the current Governor does the other way around?

Unruly City Works Well

I think the economy of big cities is one of under-researched topics in economics, particularly on the positive contribution from otherwise "unruly" features of a city --slums, city dwellers, crowded sidewalk, counterfeiting business, etc.

During this weekend, I am reading the captivating Jane Jacobs' classic, The Death and Life of Great American Cities. I know this is way too late, it has been published since 1961, but her fresh attack on how the then latest urban planning trend (such as Le Corbusier, --the architect, not the mentalist (sic!)) misunderstood city life still sounds relevant even today. It makes a lot of economic sense, too.

Having been reading some of the early chapters, I have a question, perhaps to criminologist: Is the crime record in Jakarta's crowded housing districts (Tanah Abang or Senen area) higher than in the suburbs (Depok, Tangerang, Bekasi), where the so called modern urban housing planning has been heavily exercised? --If the records are neither available nor reliable, a careful observation on Pos Kota will do.

My guess, it isn't. Presumably, high population density and close interaction will produce positive externalities of an informal surveillance system for public order. But maybe I am wrong.

A Muffin Jam

Suppose you know that for our health, shortbread is better than muffin. By that, substituting muffin with shortbread in our diet is good. Yet, many people, as they love muffin, understandably, will not alter their diet to shortbread by persuasion, even for the noble purpose such as public health.

In anticipation to that, the cafe introduces more shortbread at low price, and due its limited capacity, they can not provide you with muffin as many as before. And, it's a small wonder that muffin eaters grumble. They complain that muffin is now hard to find.

But on the second thought, wouldn't it be the perfectly predictable, and desirable, effect --to make the muffin relative price to shortbread rises? Sooner or later, they will respond and switch to shortbread, and as time goes, switching will be less painful.

Now, replace health, shortbread, muffin, the cafe, muffin relative price increase, and switching responsiveness; with travel time, the busway, driving your private car, Jakarta busy thoroughfares,traffic jam, and elasticity of substitution. I hope by now you get the idea, thanks to Econ 101.

Oh, and the muffin eaters/grumblers, they are the popular voices oftenly appear in newspapers, TVs, and, well, politicians' words. Just want to say: come off it, mates!

My own stupid analysis: Jakarta's Car Free Day

Sutiyoso's car free day is stupid. And it is bad for the environment, too.

So, the outgoing Jakarta's governor Sutiyoso who seems to think he is an environmentalist, again endorses a silly event that takes place today (Saturday). It is called Jakarta Car Free Day; it seems to be proposed by some environmental groups. The policy is to ban cars in Jalan Sudirman and Jalan Thamrin, the two most important streets in the heart of metro Jakarta. The idea is to be friendly to the environment. The event, I heard, is to be repeated every month. And in every event, they will hold activities like happy biking or things like that. They said this is in solidarity with the "same global movement", World Car Free Day.

I bet in most countries/cities that adopt this event the traffic management and public transportation facility is better than Jakarta. If not, things can be very nasty.

Just like Jakarta today. As of now, I have no idea what is going on in Thamrin and Sudirman, but Gatot Subroto, Slipi, Casablanca, and many other streets in the neighborhood are in total jam. I just came back from Senayan to Shangri-La and it took me one hour travel time. This is probably 'normal' in Jakarta's weekdays. But not in Saturday.

It turns out, people do not halt their activities because of the car-free day (who wants?). They just try to find ways around Sudirman and Thamrin to get to their destination or come back home. I think the numbers of cars not used in respect to the car-free day is negligible, compared to cars trying to make detours around the two main streets.

As I said, this resulted in annoying and tiring traffic jam in almost all streets adjacent to Sudirman and Thamrin. Furthermore -- and let me ask this to the environmentalists who campaign for this event -- which one pollutes more: a heavy traffic jam where cars run 3 kms/hour around car-free (but not bus-free) Sudirman/Thamrin or usual Saturdays in Jakarta when traffic is usually not as bad as weekdays?

Really, even the greens need to understand the power of incentives.

Riding a Cab (and pay old fare) in Jakarta

If you ever traveled with a cab in Jakarta, you would notice that there are cabs with old (cheaper) fare and ones with new fare. Approximately, the former are about 30 percent cheaper.

The major cab company in Jakarta (that claims to have more than 50 percent of cabs market share in the city, according to their internal magazine I read while stuck in a usual traffic jam) belongs to the more expensive group. They adopt the new fare is due to the fact, again they claim, that higher fare does not bring down the number of passenger significantly. In economics jargon, the demand elasticity is low.

The two types of fare is actually quite new. It came into effect when the cab firms did not agree on increasing fare following the fuel price hike. Here, the government regulates the cab fare, based on input from the firms association (Yes, you read it right).

I actually like this kind of dual fare arrangement. In fact, I want more than two types of fares. It leaves me, as a cab consumer, a range of choice. If you have the money, or your company pays it, you can take the premium. Otherwise, when money is short, you can take the riskier and, perhaps, less convenient service.

Unlike public bus or economy class train --the mighty KRL--, I don’t see any reason why government should set the minimum fare for more luxurious cab service. Thus I would love to see those cab firms to disagree to each other –in other words, becoming a failing cartel –.

Without price cap, you may want to say that the major cab firm will drive the fare up steeply, and leave us worse off. I bet it won’t be the case. They can try to do so, but competition will bring other cab firms with more or less similar quality but lower fare to come in.

This might sound counterintuitive for some of café visitors that if you hate cabs that charge you high fare, what you can do is not trying to regulate price (to hold the price increase through government regulation), but to free the market.