The Economic Way of Thinking

Ayn Rand's School for Tots

In my favorite Simpson's episode, Maggie is sent away to the "Ayn Rand School for Tots."  While at the school, posters hang above childrens' beds that read "A is A."  Children are read "The Fountainhead Diet" by Ms. Sinclair, a woman who looks a lot like Ayn Rand.  And, when children ask for the bottle, they are reminded that they are behaving like leeches.  More on the episode can be found here.

Over at the Austro-Athenian Empire blog, Roderick Long discusses an episode from Ayn Rand's own childhood that may have been formative in her future work.

(HT: Eric Crampton)

Brace For A Wealth Of Smith Stories

Mercer's new Center for Undergraduate Research in Public Policy & Capitalism (the site is still a work in progress!) and Center for the Teaching of America's Western Foundations are pleased to host Jim Otteson tonight for a talk titled "The Promise and Perils of Commercial Society."  The talk begins at 6:30 pm in the Fickling Recital Hall. 

Jim's  books and scholarship have helped him win a number of major awards, including the Atlas Economic Research Award (2005) and the Templeton Enterprise Award (2007).  His book Adam Smith's Marketplace of Life is one of the finest attempts to address and reconcile the "Das Adam Smith Problem."  He also has a blog that's worth following here.   

Local readers might also want to mark their calendars for upcoming talks by Steve Horwitz (Monday, October 26) and Bruce Benson (Wednesday, November 18).  Details are forthcoming.

The Gift Buyer's Dilemma

I'm in Guatemala attending the 2009 APEE meetings and having a wonderful time.  Yesterday, I joined a number of participants on an excursion to Antigua that included observance of a beautiful Palm Sunday processional.  Today, sessions at the conference begin.

While in Antigua yesterday, I did some gift shopping for my wife.  Antigua's filled with market squares and entrepreneurs in the streets, and the city was full of life.  Yet, one doesn't have to look far to see poverty, which brings me to my question.

Assume the gift I was buying yesterday was being sold by a number of different vendors.  Assume prices were all identical at the different vendors.  Assume that "doing good" is a calculation I'm actually trying to make in my purchase. 

If these conditions were present, which vendor do I buy from?  Do I buy from the person under a roof in a market square?  Or, do I buy from the person on the street in front of the market who seems to need my money more than the  person under a roof?  What about the person who approaches me and makes me laugh while trying to sell me the gift?  Isn't he more deserving of my money because he also made me laugh?  Or, perhaps, I should just settle for the person closest to me so that I economize on my time (which is also part of "doing good"). 

I understand and fully appreciate the "greed is good" arguments that often lead people, particularly economists, to turn a blind eye to the above hypothetical.  Assuming I wanted to do good, however, is there anything more than an economistic form of ethical egoism that one should use in making his or her decision of who to buy from?