Re: Shoppers in your Palm

David G. Durand (dgd@cs.bu.edu)
Thu, 17 Jun 1999 20:59:41 -0400

At 5:44 PM -0400 6/11/99, Rohit Khare wrote:
>But as an economist, I keep coming back to the ground truth: money is
>money, and nothing else is. If I'm so damn thrilled to get a purple
>Bonneville, I should put at least a dime on the table for the
>privilege -- to say nothing of the $3,000 for a Ford holographic
>blue-purple paint job :-)

This is the weakness of economics. The "economy" is good only insofar as it
serves the purposes of the mass of citizens. If we're happier getting
purple widgets, then the world is better when it's more purple, whether or
not some gimp makes a penny off of it. In fact, of course, the guys
offering unwanted red items will lose sales, even if the purple guys aren't
gaining anything but survival.

A great many important things aren't money. Obvious, but somehow forgotten
in much debate in our society.

I realize the trick whereby you can value intagibles by the economic
differential between alternatives, but infinities do enter that picture...

-- David
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Boston University Computer Science \ Sr. Analyst
http://www.cs.bu.edu/students/grads/dgd/ \ Dynamic Diagrams
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