Seriously?

I am typically a fan of James Surowiecki. He is the only reason I have the New Yorker in my feed reader. No bullshit.

However, this article is one of the most tone deaf things I have read in awhile.

The people want jobs and are upset with the stimulus. People want health care reform and don't like Obamacare...those silly voters.

He apparently can't even consider that people don't believe that stimulus will create jobs. Or that Obamacare won't fix the real problems with health care or have side effects worse than the disease.

As a man who wrote a book about the dangers of people making decisions when they end up in an echo chamber...maybe he should talk to the vast majority of Americans (according to polls) who are opposed to the items he mentions and ask them what their problem is.

Now Seth Godin...the rest of the story

Seth Godin wrote a typically thought provoking article about how to use 'free' to make more money.

I think his examples are accurate, but I think they are examples of complementary goods. More yoga classes mean people will buy more yoga clothes bought. If you want to sell hot dogs...you could give away hot dog buns.

I'm tried to apply that thought to my little apartment locating business. I have to admit it took some time. What could you give away that makes people want more apartment locating services?

I think it is unrealistic to think you can make people want more than one apartment. However, you can make it easier for them to change apartments. Free moving truck, maybe help switching utilities, change of address packets....I have seen services that will help you move for free if you use their services. I have also seen storage places offer a free truck for the afternoon.

Also could be used as something to get people talking about your service vs the other service.

I have to confess, I started this post to contradict the Seth's post- or at least point out it wasn't a universal idea, but I guess I came around.