I became a feminist because I wanted to be free: to go for long walks and look up the stars, to wear whatever I wanted, to be able to look after myself and not have to rely on others.
I've lived my life in a time and place where I've been able to have those freedoms, but I feel as if they're gradually being eaten away. I'm being defined by who I am, rather than what I choose to be.
Goods are becoming ever more specialized. Everything from baby diapers to multivitamins is now dispensed in gender- and age-appropriate models. Yes, it makes sense to have his and hers jeans. But gender appropriate soft-drinks? Does the average guy's masculinity really need to be bolstered by buying Coke Zero instead of Diet Coke?
The profitability of his and hers products is partly due to price discrimination. The local hair salon charges women more than men because women are prepared to pay $50 or $60 to get their hair cut. Men asked to pay that price would just walk across the road to the barber shop that charges $15 for a short back-and-sides.
I have to wonder, too, if creating products for girls is just a way of selling more stuff to boys. Imaging buying something for a 10 year old boy that came in the 1960s-ish Lego packaging shown on the left? No way, you'd reach for the remote-controlled monster truck instead. But having a separate "friends" line for girls allows Lego to tailor its other products to suit boys' tastes.
Finally, gender differentiation can be a way of selling more stuff in general, and higher sales equals higher profits (with an increasing returns to scale production technology). With one-size-fits-all multivitamins, a family need only buy a single jar. With age- and gender-differentiated ones, a family needs vitamins for Mom, vitamins for Dad, and at least one type of children's vitamins.
So I understand why most things come in "his" and hers". Maybe girly vitamins are better for me anyways. But if we are stuck in a gender differentiated world, where everything is divided into "boys" and "girls", there are some things I would like to see.
First, gender differentiated kitchen counters. A standard height kitchen counter height is 36 inches, but people come in all sorts of different heights. The counter height that works for someone who is barely five feet will be too short for her six foot four sous-chef. O.k., probably it's costly to make kitchen counters different heights, and it would compromise the resale value of one's home. Yet how can men be expected to share equally in kitchen duties if every work surface is designed to generate excruciating back pain?
Second, gender differentiated power tools. I have small hands. My palm sander doesn't fit into my palm – it's more like a two-handed sander. I'd love to get a new drill, but most have such a large grip that I can barely hold them. It's not just a gender issue – men's hands come in all sorts of different sizes, too. How can women be expected to share equally in home repair duties when every power tool is the wrong size for their hands?
Finally, I'd like to see more cars built with features that appeal to women. I've heard – but I don't know if this is true – that as soon as a particular model of car is perceived as being "girly," men won't buy it. Since men still constitute the majority of car buyers, sales collapse. I've heard this offered as an explanation of the lack of cars like the Smart car – two person vehicles that use hardly any gas, and are easy to drive and park on city streets. Smart cars are just too cute, and cute=girly, and girly is the automotive kiss of death. But what is the cost of this pursuit of masculinity?
Today is international women's day. I'm going to celebrate by going for a long walk – even if tonight it will too cloudy to see the stars.
Worthwhile Canadian Initiative 
Welcome to the wonderful world of capitalism where biases, prejudices, stereotypes, fears, vanity and greed are fostered and then pandered to.
I bought this for my niece when she moved to her own apartment.
Robert – that explains why gender differentiation exists, but not why it’s increasing. Diapers and Lego and diet soft drinks didn’t used to come in boys and girls. Something has to have changed – e.g. cost of differentiation down, economies of scale in production up.
Stephen – great gift idea! Is that an electronic screw driver, or is it powerful enough to be used as a drill?
Smart cars actually aren’t that great on gas for what they are.
http://autos.msn.com/research/vip/Spec_Glance.aspx?year=2011&make=Smart&model=fortwo&trimid=-1
You’d think that it would be far better than competing ‘real cars’ . . .
http://autos.msn.com/research/compare/default.aspx?c=0&i=0&tb=0&ph1=t0&ph2=t0&dt=0&v=t113050&v=t113429&v=t112922&v=t114764
Francis: What has changed is an increase in competition. This leads many companies in highly competitive markets to seek out any edge they can and appealing to base instincts such as the ones I listed works.
“I’m being defined by who I am, rather than what I choose to be.”
To what extent do we choose, really? I think advertisers and marketers realized that not only could they categorize people and then sell stuff to them on that basis, they could also proactive tell people who and what they are, and then sell stuff to them to reinforce the categorization.
Fashion/women’s magazines are a great example of how twisted it’s all become. My better half (who is much better educated, more successful, and generally smarter than me) positively froths every time we go through the check-out line at the grocery store.
Her: “LOOK! LOOK at this crap! What are women DOING to themselves? Being a media whore tramp is not empowering!”
Me: “Yes dear, it’s terrible. Can you reach those canned tomatoes for me?”
I have read since the beginning and I didn’t know you were a woman.
I’m unsubscribing because I don’t like this sort of thing.
Not to harp on minutia, but were you being serious when you claimed that Coke Zero was invented just to bolster male sensibilities?
Heaven forbid you ever find yourself in a position where you can no longer consume natural sweeteners. When I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes, I was thankful for the choice between Diet Coke and Coke Zero. They taste different. Sometimes I drink one, sometimes the other. It depends on what I feel like.
I appreciate having the option. Every other soft drink company uses solely aspartame. A Diet Pepsi has the same basic taste as a Diet PC Cola and a Diet RC Cola and whatever else. Coke Zero has a different sweetener that tastes difference and provides a good change of pace from the typical diet soft drink.
Being unable to consume sugar, I’m glad I have a few options…
Ryan – I agree with you – real choice – as opposed to the same product repackaged – is a good thing.
Still, conventional wisdom is that Coke Zero is marketed towards men, as in its Wikipedia entry “It is a low-calorie (0.75 calories per liter) variation of Coca-Cola specifically marketed to males.” Looking at the ads and the packaging, it looks marketed towards males to me.
Keep to economics – “I have read since the beginning and I didn’t know you were a woman. I’m unsubscribing…”
I wondered how many readers I’d lose by coming out. But then thought “but on the other hand, there are lots of times when someone is looking for a token female blogger, and why should Jodi and Nancy get all of the good invites?”
Patrick – your wife might like this in The Onion Women now empowered by everything a woman does.
Robert, all the more reason to go for a long walk and look up at the stars….
@ Frances
http://www.powertoolsforwomen.net/
BTW, we have a very nice drill by Bosch that is fine for small hands. 🙂
@ Ryan
Yeah, Diet Coke tastes crappy. BTW, I have recently discovered a good alternative (for me) to Coke Zero: Green Tea. No calories and not too much caffeine. 🙂
Power Tools for Girls
Freudian joke: You mean like mixers and blenders and washing machines? Like vacuum cleaners?
(Sorry, I could not resist. ;))
“Does the average guy’s masculinity really need to be bolstered by buying Coke Zero instead of Diet Coke.”
I can’t speak for others, but I prefer Coke zero because it tastes less like malted battery acid. The problem with Diet coke isn’t the “Diet” part – I don’t have a problem with diet pepsi, or diet sprite – it’s that it tastes awful.
“Second, gender differentiated power tools.”
A few years ago, my mother gave my wife, a “gender-diferentiated” hammer and measuring tape. It had sparkles and pink fake fur (and was smaller than a conventional hammer and measuring tape). That’s probably not what you had in mind. I assume it was a joke (since my wife owned and used a perfectly functional, real, hammer and tape measure). Me, I’m a progressive guy, I gave my wife a decidely non-pink drill.
There’s a chicken and egg element to this discussion. Would woman buy more power tools if they were designed for them, or do manufacturers not built power tools designed for woman because they know they won’t buy them. I mean, let’s be honest, building higher countertops wouldn’t get more men to cook, and you can sell all the pink toy guns you want, little girls are still going to play with barbies. We really shouldn’t be surprised if people choose to be who they are.
On the other hand, we see other markets where companies are quite eager to create gender diferrentiated products – the one that immediately came to mind is the thriving market in the US for small, easy to carry, “hand bag” guns and pink tazers, marketed to woman (I guess woman prefer not to lug around a Colt ’45 and if you’re going to zap a would-be mugger, you might as well look good doing it).
Min – actually vacuum cleaners are an interesting one. Our new Miele has an adjustable sticky-thing so it can be used comfortably by a person of any height. The sales person just really subtly pointed this feature out to us in the showroom. I don’t know how height-adjustable vacuum cleaners are in general. But, yup, I was thinking of using vacuum cleaners as an example of something that needed more gender differentiation but rejected it.
Jamie Oliver has a line of somewhat more manly kitchen appliances – solid chunky ones, e.g. blenders for real men who use them to make real margaritas.
I’ll check out the Bosch drills, powertoolsforwomen doesn’t have much. Small things aren’t such an issue e.g. Lee Valley tools makes beautiful screwdrivers with wooden handles.
Non-feminists are star-gazing, going for long walks, and dressing as they please in the most female friendly society the world has ever known as feminists neurotically worry about non-existent threats to their freedom. That’s my opinion.
@Frances – All I know about choice and specialization is what I learned in my intermediate micro- class wayyyy back in the day. My professor taught us that the loss of efficiency seen when a market goes from perfect competition to monopolistic competition is due to product differentiation, real or imagined. She then speculated that the economic explanation for this is that consumers value “just having a choice.” I recall us naive students nodding in agreement.
Now the question is “Is the difference real or imagined?” The implication there is that incorporating a “real” difference into my economic decisions is perhaps “more rational” than incorporating an “imaginary” difference.
One view of that matter is that any perceived difference is real enough to the person who perceives it. In other words, if I perceive that my Steinway piano sounds 10x better than my Yamaha replica, I will pay 10x the price. Go ahead and try to convince a pianist that the Yamaha is of equal build quality for a fraction of the price. You will fail, because musicians perceive differences that are real for them, regardless of any evidence to the contrary.
Apparently, our beliefs are valuable to us. We will pay extra to protect them.
The alternative to this viewpoint is the one voiced by my micro- principles professor. He was a very old school guy, they pulled him out of retirement to teach my section. He literally worked as an economist on The Manhattan Project. Literally. Anyway, he used to tell us that all advertising was economically wasteful because it created the perception of difference where there isn’t any.
My view is that we’re paying for something. It must be pretty valuable to us, because even in the face of evidence, we still end up paying for it. I don’t think it’s irrational, I just think it’s human.
I much prefer Diet Coke because that is what I am accustomed to. I’m a Type I Diabetic and have been for 26 years. Competition in Diet products is not great. I was informed by the cafeteria manager at university that Diet products that are not Diet Coke don’t sell in enough quantities to justify stocking them. So that’s why it was Diet Coke all the way for me on campus.
Ryan:
My experiences with unemployment, drug insurance and Diabetes made me into a lefty. You’re Type I Diabetic libertarian supply-sider. Yin and Yang. 😉
@Determinant – Really? Amazing! Maybe we’re imperfect substitutes…
Perhaps we should get our own blog. “Two Diabetics do Econ”. Diabetes does make you very aware of things that others overlook, like job tenure, total compensation and the insurance market for drugs. Or as I like to call it “job robustness”, how secure is your job to economic fluctuations and how to you, as an individual, accommodate those fluctuations.
Speaking of public policy, I am a member of the NDP and the leadership ballot is in the mail. I will be voting for Martin Singh on the first round because of his pharmacare plan, then switching to Thomas Mulcair. I am a special interest voter when it comes to pharmacare. I told the Mulcair campaign they could have my vote on the first round if Mulcair put out a policy statement in favour of pharmacare on his website but the Mulcair campaign hasn’t followed through.
Ryan – economists have historically taken the position “De gustibus non disputandum est,” that is, there’s no arguing over tastes, people’s preferences are what they are, there’s no good and bad preferences.
Behavioural economists are starting to try to unpack that, trying to get at the idea of multiple selves – so we have an inner Homer Simpson who can be tricked by advertising into thinking “extended warranty, sounds like a great idea!” It’s something I’ve struggled long and hard with, but there are no easy answers.
Brendan – the extent to which products are being differentiated by gender in our economy is increasing. That’s a phenomenon worthy of analysis whatever your politics. I wrote about it from my perspective, but gender differentiation potentially restricts men’s options even more than it restricts women’s. Women can go all Annie Hall in a suit and tie, but it’s a brave man who dons a skirt.
If it’s tartan, you wear a Sporran and wear knee-high socks and shoes with buckles, you’re safe.
What has changed?
Supply chains and retailers are more sophisticated, and SKU proliferation is a powerful force. In the age of Amazon, with its >3 million SKUs, other retailers face pressure to offer more segmented assortments. A more interesting question is why do people buy them?
As a taller individual, I do a lot of kitchen-based tasks despite the lack of ergonomic work surfaces. The worst is washing dishes, which usually involves leaning into something that is just above knee-height. You adapt by sucking it up and dealing with the discomfort of back pain. Thankfully most products come in taller options, so I can buy socks that have the heel in the right spot and not in the arch of my foot. Unfortunately, tall people are often condemned to buying big vehicles. Every car I’ve ever driven I’ve needed to move the driver’s seat all the way back, and even then it would be great if it went back a few more inches. I would be willing to buy a subcompact if I fit in one. As it is, I made do with a compact because I found one I didn’t mind and also fit in (most were uncomfortable to drive), so I managed to get away without buying a mid-size. We all have our crosses to bear, I guess ;).
Andrew F: “The worst is washing dishes” – try getting an old style plastic or rubber washing up bowl and some kind of six inch high shelf type object to put it on. We found one designed to stack glasses or plates on in a cupboard and that fits into the sink and holds up the washing up bowl. Really helps.
Toyota Matrix has a lot of head room.
Well, not a lot. But enough for someone who is 6′ tall.
Is there something about Toyota Matrixes and economics professors? One of my colleagues has one identical to mine.
Before middle age shrinkage my mother (now in her 80s) was 5′ 8″ (~173 cm). When we had our kitchen redone ~45 years ago, she had the contractor put about 2″-3″ of wood underneath the counters so that she would be comfortable. Specially sized counters for tall people (or, in this case, men) are not necessary; simpler solutions are available. My parents were only about 3″ different in height so this worked well (or would have if my father had cooked much). I’m not sure how you’d solve the problem in a marriage* with a more pronounced difference in height: his and her kitchens?
*I use this term for lack of a better, but intend it w/o prejudice for all who consider themselves married, whether or not the state recognizes their situation.
Determinant,
I think it was Sir Walter Scott who basically laid down the law on tartan: if you’re wearing a tartan, you can get away with ANYTHING, even bobble-hats. He’s the man who made Scotland into ‘Scotland’ by creating a Highland culture and mythos (aided by other greats like R. L. Stevenson). To borrow a joke from the Horrible History series-
Rannoch Moor before Sir Walter Scott:
– a cold, inhospitable and savage country in need of radical transformation.
Rannoch Moor after Sir Walter Scott:
– a beautiful, unspoilt and romantic country in need of relentless conservation.
So, if you want to avoid one set of cultural pigeon-holings, the easiest way out is to be part of ANOTHER set of overlapping cultural pigeon-holings. I can wear a kilt whenever I like, but I will also have to explain NOT wearing a kilt on various occasions (e.g. Burns’ Supper, when it’s just too anachronistic for me).
As a Waterloo Math alum, I know several former classmates who bought Matrixes (Matrices?) in part because of the name. I agree that they are pretty good for head room. Believe it or not, head room is not usually the problem (more cars these days have height adjustable seats, and failing that you recline the seat some more), it’s more the distance between your hips and the pedal. It’s awkward to drive with your legs bent significantly. You have to angle your ankle quite high to change pedals.
My ‘trick’ for washing dishes is usually to soak whatever I’m washing and put it on the counter mostly empty of water and scrub it if necessary (pots and pans). It works. I have also been known to use a stack of cutting boards when I have to do a lot of knife work. I think tall people get used to it. My desk at work poses many of the same issues. I just use stacks of paper to make things a bit more ergonomic. At least the chairs are designed to be adjusted to suit people from 4’10” and 80 lbs to 6’6″ and 300 lbs. I marvelled at them, actually. Lots of clever design work. A bit ruined when you have fixed height desks, but nice nonetheless.
The premise of the article is reasonable, but the examples are a bit odd, and maybe point up the rarity of the purely marketing-based gender differentiation. One reason a single height of countertop works because taller people have longer arms (it’s not perfect, but most people can reach to 36″). With power tools, as in other markets (cameras come to mind), functional considerations mean that these tools are available in a variety of sizes, with the caveat that if you want a very beefy tool with a very dainty handle, you may be out of luck.
The elephant in the room of non-functional gender differentiation is clothing, as alluded to already, but I dare say most cultures (and most individuals) seem to find it highly convenient to be gender-identifiable with ease, and I think it won’t take an economist to figure out a few perfectly selfish reasons.
Regarding kitchen counter heights, I don’t understand this. I have constructed lots of kitchens (has to do with the fact that in Germany you rent/buy places without a kitchen installed) – and mostly used Ikea kitchens. The cupboards are constucted on supports with adjustable legs (absolutely necessary anyway because the floor will not be level). You can raise them or lower them as you wish (up to 10 cm).
Min
“Power Tools for Girls
Freudian joke: You mean like mixers and blenders and washing machines? Like vacuum cleaners?
(Sorry, I could not resist. ;))”
Reminds me of a funny story. Long ago I went with my wife to a Joan Baez concert. We went somewhere else on the way there, and it happened she had a cake mixer in her backback. The security guys didn’t want to let he in. Seriously they thought she might attack someone with a cake mixer – a Joan Baez concert!
Oops
…. didn’t want to let HER in.
reason – I never knew that about German kitchens. The interesting question is – do people take advantage of those adjustable legs to have counter-top heights other than 36 inches? That would provide information about people’s revealed preferences over counter heights.
Ryan: “maybe point up the rarity of the purely marketing-based gender differentiation”
I was reading this comment and a Burger King ad came on TV for The Baconator… “You don’t just eat this burger – you conquer it” Followed by a truck ad “this truck doesn’t just have balls, it has stones…”
Perhaps men like bacon more than women do – or are more willing to eat it. That’s the impression you’d get from watching Epic Meal Time videos on youtube anyways.
But the point is that marketers take a little wedge, a small gender difference, e.g. greater propensity to eat bacon, and magnify it. As a result – because gender is such a fundamental part of our identities as people – the wedges get bigger and bigger until a girl can’t sit down to a serious steak without feeling somehow wrong and unfeminine.
The saddest part for me of Deirdre McCloskey’s book “Crossings” was when she described how she enjoys knitting or sewing now that she’s had a sex change operation. And I was thinking “why did she have to endure all that pain to be able to do things she wanted to do? Why couldn’t Don have taken up knitting and sewing?”
Or enlist in the British army or become a coal miner. I’m not sure , but IIRC knitting and seing were taught to soldiers and miners. useful in repairing gear and an esay way to keep busy. If british veterans ot miners could provide more information…
I can sew on a button and other things, it comes in useful as a bachelor when a shirt loses a button.
It’s the same reason I learned to cook roasts: they don’t cook themselves and I want something nice.
@Frances,
the very most German kitchens have the same 36 inch height (well, mine measures 35.85),
you have to fit the fridge and other machines underneath, which come in standard sizes.
For the Coke Zero, I saw the story that KO tried actually for a few years to get the unintended “girlie” image off the Diet Coke, just didn’t work.
And people don’t buy “brown sugary water”, they pay twice the price for a certain brand image. That is what they buy.
In general, the cost of producing things in much smaller batch sizes have gone done rapidly with CNC machines and the general trend to “just in time”, reduced storage volumes. You don’t do any more “1000 green BMW”, every single car is custom made, not only the colour, but other things as well.
Some companies even ship partially finished stuff from Asia to Europe, and then do the customization for the individual countries in their hub and spoke center.
And people love to get tended to “individually”, and if it doesn’t cost anything, why not.
With small cars, I know a few men, who drive Mini Coopers.
And I mean, how long does kitchen duty take ? If it takes longer, you sit at the kitchen table.
@genauer
In North America kitchen cupboards are built-in and the refrigerator is 1.5 metres tall (human height) with a freezer. The refrigerator and stove are part of the apartment and come with the rent.
Most lower and middle rent apartments don’t have a dishwasher, for a one-bedroom apartment dishwashers are impractical and a dishwasher is the only machine that fits under the counter here.
Laundry machines are usually by themselves if they are in the apartment but many buildings have coin-operated machines in laundry rooms, or there are commerical laundromats. I used a laundromat in a former apartment of mine, in my student house we had a washer and dryer but no dishwasher.
I’m curious to hear people’s thoughts on the transition from gender neutral children’s toys (e.g. lego as shown above) to the current practice of explicit differentiation.
( http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/hamleys-toy-store-removes-sexist-281600 ; sorry the Mirror was the first hit on my search 🙂
I have trouble believeing that market competition has resulted in market segmentation while still holding rational preference assumptions. If this was true, since many households own multiple cars, there would be catering to Male / Female cars – as seen in bathroom towels.
Product brand differentiation works if you do not want to compete on price and can convince the consumer that they are different products. (Think of deoderant, airline seats, cereal, etc.) In other words, competition amongst homogenous goods implies two outcomes: price change or branding. What shifted in purchasers perception of preference (in this case parents purchasing for children) that allowed toys to become gender specific? In other words, how is it that rather than losing half the market, companies were successful? In effect, the company is saying “our relatively more expensive toy is Made Just For Young Men” rather than adjust the price to compete with the generic toy. (Same applies to the vitamin and deoderant market – strong enough for a woman, priced for a man. But in these cases the preference of the consumer and the purchaser are the same.)
@Determinant,
I lived for 7 years in NY. I still have about 2 pounds of quarters, somewhere : – )
Btw, I had a mechanical, how should I say this, “hacking machine” ? in the kitchen sink.
Is this normal?
With regard to what is built into a place, this comes in Germany in all kinds of different versions. In Munich I never bought anything, here it is the fridge and the laundry, but the oven is pre installed. And I enjoy “Kochwäsche” back here, real 95 deg C laundry. Other people own the whole kitchen installation together.
But somehow we never get away from the 36 inches height, right ?
Peter,
I believe that books and Lego is pretty much the only gender neutral toys I remember. Fischertechnik, mechanical, electrical, tin soldiers, the miniature railway, all male.
Probably others are better at female stuff.
@genauer:
There are US/Canada differences and that “hacking machine” is one of them. It’s a “garbage disposal” or “garbeurator”. They are very rare in Canada but common in the US. Another is that electric stoves and ovens are the norm in Canada in general and universal for rental units, gas oven and stove are more common in the US. Canadian landlords take the view that electric ovens/stoves are safer.
It may also be an effect of market supply. Thomas Ahearn of Ottawa held several early patents on electric stoves and his marketing efforts were directed at the Canadian market, logically. Ahearn & Soper, his firm, is still in business but not in the kitchen appliance field.
Peter: “In effect, the company is saying “our relatively more expensive toy is Made Just For Young Men” rather than adjust the price to compete with the generic toy.”
Take a look at this article on Jezebel that swaps the voice tracks on male and female Lego commercials. Worth clicking on, honestly. What’s immediately apparent is that the basic engineering and form of the two products is the same, only the packaging is different.
So I think it’s your first intuition, that firms preserve market share by creating multiple different versions of what is basically the same good.
@genauer: “In general, the cost of producing things in much smaller batch sizes have gone done rapidly with CNC machines and the general trend to “just in time”, reduced storage volumes. You don’t do any more “1000 green BMW”, every single car is custom made, not only the colour, but other things as well.”
I’m sure that’s a huge part of what’s going on. The marginal cost of producing a Facebook page that is exactly tailored to my demographics is close enough to zero as to make no odds.
@genauer and @Determinant:
in the US., as in Europe it makes no sense to burn gas or oil to produce electricity to generate heat ( cooking or space heating). Might as well use the heat directly.
In most of Canada , where electriccity is generated by hydro-power ( for non-canadians, that’s why most utilities are named Hydro-something and we refer to electricity as “hydro” as in “the hydro bill went up”), it is rational to cook or heat with electricity.
However, today it makes more and more sense to use hydro-electricity in chemical or metallurgical industries and in Québec, Montréal and Québec City in particular, there was a push to convert the old coal-gas networks to natural gas so as to use less electricity for domestic purposes and more for industrial uses. In fact, Hydro-Québec (a state-ownwed utility) even bought a stake in Gaz Métropolitain (a private one).
From monetary policy to german kitchen arrangement and origins of North American electricity to moving houses in New Zealand, this blog is fast becoming the new Wikipedia…
Actually most electricity is generated though coal, coal being cheaper than oil and both are quite a bit cheaper than gas.
Hydro is very, very cheap because the fuel is free, literally, most utilities in Ontario don’t pay royalties on their water rights. There are a few dams not in OPG’s possession. Ontario gets 50% of its electricity from nuclear which is cheap enough on running costs, the capital costs are astronomic.
Ontario Power Generation is phasing out its coal plants and has one dual-fuel oil/natural gas plan at Kingston for peak periods. We also have interconnections with New York and Michigan and to a lesser extent with Quebec.
When we buy hydro from Quebec they have to take the Quebec plant off-line, unplug it essentially from Quebec’s network and tie it in and synch the generators with Ontario’s phase.
Frances: I am not sure I fully understand the telos of your entry, but I did want to stress that more choice, whether segregated or not is usually a good thing, no?
In this way I disagree with your (Frances’) above reply “Ryan – I agree with you – real choice – as opposed to the same product repackaged – is a good thing.”
In my view, an existing product, but repackaged and remarketed to a different demographic/segment often breathes new life into the product itself, and arguably promotes its future development (if necessary). I can think of no greater instance of this than the very nature of blogging itself! Once a product used and maintained primarily by technically inclined I.T. people (mostly men?) who wished to stay ‘in-the-know’ so to speak. Fast forward to blogspot, typepad, wordpress, and you begin to see the product segregate into a more and more diversified markets; this “mainly Canadian economics blog” being no exception.
Also, if I may also touch on your comment about the auto industry, I think men in general have more of a love affair with their cars then women do, especially those of us who take the time to get to know them (sounds weird I know!). What I mean is those who tinker with their cars, as my friends and I do, learn to appreciate them and become more attached to them than those who don’t; at least this is how it is in my experience.
Moreover, on average I feel that men are more likely to get-down-and-dirty in repairing their cars. Perhaps men are simply more cheap/fugal with their money and cannot admit that the prescribed repair is actually worth eighteen-hundred hard earned dollars; but more likely, I think, it is because many men seem to have a natural fascination to learn how cars work.
Lastly, and I may be completely off base here, but have you ever met a woman who named their car? Or treated it with some kind of physical/personal identity? I haven’t. But almost every young guy I know does, especially those who ‘take her to the shop’ or ‘wash her’ or have picked up a new x y z for ‘her’. Cars and their accessories are the big toys for boys, and I don’t see any problem with it being so.
Jacques Rene – “In most of Canada , where electriccity is generated by hydro-power”
You know, if BC and Quebec could just get rid of those provinces in the middle, they’d get along just fine. Quebec, yes, BC, yes, ROC, not so much.
@Scott P Bacon
IRL Nick Rowe, the macro blogger around here and Frances co-worker, is a gearhead. He has a Mazda MX6 which is his baby.
@Frances
Ontario does nukes, hydro and oil/gas as a peak unit. I took a course on this. Beck at Niagara Falls is a wonderful thing.
Manitoba gets most of its power from hydro.
Determinant – yes, hydro plays a crucial rule in peak power generation, also has exciting potential when used together with wind or solar, but it’s not powering this computer.
R.E. Cameron – fair cop, clearly I’ve been living in Ontario too long. Alberta has a lot of hydro power too.
Jacques Rene, my apologies.