Re: You Can’t Make Me Talk

On Apr 6, 2007, at 2:10 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:

What’s wrong with an inefficient allocation?

Depends on what you’re talking about. That pic that Andy F, I think,
pointed to - of a guy driving his SUV to the gym while his dog ran
alongside on a leash - is a bad kind of inefficiency. The practice of
my landlord, The New Press, of running the a/c all winter because
parts of the office are poorly ventilated, is a bad kind of
inefficiency. (Ceiling fans? How boring!) The practice of rich people
keeping their multiple houses largely empty while millions are
homeless is a bad kind of inefficiency. There’s something to be said
for Pareto optimality, too. But the inefficiency of la dolce fa’
niente - sweetly doing nothing, as they say in Umbria - that’s a kind
of inefficiency we could use more of.

Doug

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