The tea bag crowd is outraged at our out of control spending.  It is THE positioning issue for the GOP - which is smart given the deficit is a massive issue facing our nation.  We absolutely have to get it under control over time.   But, if you want to fix it, you only have a few options.  You have to hurt one of 3 groups:

1.  The old (entitlements)

2.  The military (defense)

3.  The rich (tax increases)

Fact is all the other options don't add up to much.  For details here is a pie chart.

So if you are someone sick of all this spending you have to prove it. What do you want to cut?

Republicans number one attack on the health care bill was that it would CUT Medicare (this is not your Mother's Republican Party).  They want to perpetually cut taxes and they would never consider hitting the military. So what is the plan?  I want to hear it.  Until then, it is just marketing.  As for the Dems, well, Obama is going to put them to the test on it in the coming years (post recession when deficits actually do make sense).  My hunch is the special interests will win again.  Raise retirement age?  Good luck. Streamline the military?  The terrorists win.  Increase taxes?  We live in a socialist state.    

At some point, we will have to make some hard calls.  Who will have the guts to actually do it?

I think there is a good chance the tablet products coming could be a major disappointment - at least in terms of short term adoption.  I have two main reasons for this concern.  One, I am not sure what problem it is solving.  Without a problem, there is no demand for a solution.  And two, whatever problem it is solving, people change slowly unless it is remarkably better (or cheaper) than the current behavior.

There are all sorts of issues the tablet could solve.  Some are not big enough issues (mobile browsing - thanks to the other Apple phenom, the iPhone people can already do this pretty well).  Others have massive adoption hurdles (paperless offices and collaborating - we can't even get doctors to go electronic and they have a ton to gain).   

I can see one place where the set of problems, human behavior issues and incentive all line up really well:  print media.    

I have discussed the path to survival for print media previously.  Well, now is their chance to put the plan into action.  Print media has a few things that are a real asset to tablet makers today.  One, they have paid subscribers.  Yes, it is declining, but the Wall St Journal has 2 million readers a day.  People Magazine has 4 million a week.  Two, they have an outrageously expensive and inefficient distribution system - mail and home delivery.  Three, they have event based publishing (i.e. the issue).  

All three add up to something pretty big.  Your subscribers want and are willing to pay for your content.  You can replace an expensive system with a cheap one by subsidizing the one time switching cost.  And, you can make the tablet really useful without full time internet access - a big hurdle for the tablet.  

Imagine this offer: renew your NY Times for 3 years and get a free Apple tablet.  Or renew 2 magazines and get half off.  The economics will work.  The hard part is you need to go cold turkey.  Make the tablet the de facto way of consuming your content.  You have to get all the cost savings from shutting down the printing press and paperboys.  And, you have to guarantee traction to the tablet guys.  In return you take control of the new medium.  Get great at it.  Leverage it to gain access to your real time content once wifi is ubiquitous (or 3G is cheaper).  Use it to get great real estate on the user interface.  Do this: