You have it backwards. The cheaper flight is A->C. The expensive flight is A->B. This is because there is MORE demand for A->B. It's kind of counter intuitive.

Were talking about MacBooks here, not phones. The screws are normal phillips head. They are tiny but easily removed. Note that you can replace your SSD yourself. You can also replace the battery but they frown on that as they want to make sure they are disposed of properly.

Not a good thing for whom? For the consumer, increasing supply and the corresponding decrease in price would be a good thing. Your example is exactly the type of market distortion that we should be avoiding! Let each producer make his own decisions about what and how much to produce.

Your taking a very narrow view of "wealth". In the larger view, wealth is the increased availability of more and better goods. Even if a producer makes a bad decision, produces and excess supply and loses money, The overall wealth of society has increased do to those goods being available.

Remote threat? Your really going to argue that threats from four legged predators are more common than two legged? Even if you spend a lot of time in the wild your in more danger from two legged animals.

What value?!? He's converting grass that is inedible to humans to dairy products that are edible. He is increasing supply and possible lowering the cost to the consumer. He is feeding people. Economics is not a zero sum game. He is either providing a benefit or or he is going out of business. His impact on other dairy farmers is immaterial. He is creating wealth and prosperity....and not just for himself and his investors.

First, I don't throw out resumes solely based on formal education. I use that as just one factor in a fairly complex decision making process to decide who to interview. Second, I do a LOT of interviews. There is no substitute for a face-to-face discussion.

The most important things to me are what problems they have solved in the past and how they solved those problems. What responsibilities they have managed. How they deal with stress and uncertainty. How they learn and how quickly they can become an expert on a new topic. Another key thing I look for is military experience.

Investment has no real value? Lets say you want be a dairy farmer but you don't have any cows and don't have the money to buy them. I invest in you by providing the funds to establish your herd. Have I provided any value to you? I absolutely have! Would this be good deal for you if that value was realized as a dividend to me? Of course it would. Investment provides real value!

And down the rabbit hole we go....

How would you classify dividends and capital gains? In any case your confusing labor with value. Thats the whole point of debate about the Labor Theory of Value. Can all value be equated to labor? It's a complex question and we seem to be on different sides of the issue.

You do provide valid example of cost may be equated with labor. However, doing so is not always valid. The Labor Theory of Value has serious issues.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...

In short, while all labor=cost not all cost=labor.

Actually, I can legally ride my horse on any road in my state other than the Interstate Highway. There is no law that limits me to a specific area.

We are in no danger of ideas having little value. We haven't achieved even rudimentary AI. Creativity will always have value.

Your assuming that the reason for a robot is that it was cheaper than human labor. I don't think this is a valid assumption. It may actually be net more expensive. How about these possible reasons for using a robot.

1. Higher precision
2. Higher quality and consistency
3. Safety
4. The particular task is not directly possible with human labor

It's not necessarily about cost.

The corner cases are what make you rich. Thats why playing the odds is, as I said originally, not what you want to to do when your goal is to find truly exceptional people.

Your absolutely right that "hard working, creative, a willingness to step up and take ownership, and high intelligence" is what you want and it's true that the vast majority of the candidates without the degree will not have those traits. Unfortunately, a degree is not a good indicator that they have those traits either.

I've hired and worked with a good number of people over the years that legitimately qualify as a tech "superstar". About 25% had no four year degree and another 25% had a non-technical degree. A tiny fraction had higher degrees. My point was that there are real gems out there that you will miss out on if you blindly require a degree and don't evaluate what they bring to the table.

This is my experience as well. I would avoid going into debt for another degree unless thats the only way you can get the knowledge you need to do the job. However, if thats the only way you can learn it then you should find another field because your not going to make it to the top anyway.