Regarding the anathema some people have for giving away things for free. There was a recent article by Terry Savage in the Chicago Sun Times on some children giving away free lemonade at a lemonade stand. She proceeded to lecture them that they couldn’t give away the lemonade for free, and then used that anecdote to explain all the problems of the nation on the idea that giving away things for free was ok. The mindset that she expressed is what I was thinking about when I wrote what I did.
The story was picked up and there are are a number of responses that show her logic to be somewhat flawed. If you google it you can find them.
Looked up the article. Granted that Savage doesn’t sound like she was as tactful as she should have been*, she is correct in that lemonade really does have an opportunity cost.
Indeed, I think it’s trivial to show that Savage’s actions were not a result of zero-sum bias. If she were just trying to maximize resources for herself on the basis that there’s a limited supply of stuff, she should just accept the lemonade. After all, she’d have both the lemonade and the money then. Yet, she argued for a position that would have made her worse off if she did perceive the situation as a zero-sum game.
Instead, as Savage writes in her reply to the criticism, she figured that the girls would be better off running the lemonade stand as a model business, as it would teach them lessons that would improve their future earning and society as a whole**. Given this belief, her action of trying to convince the girls to accept payment is the “positive-sum thinking” you seem to be talking about.
If you want to say that Savage’s actions were wrong for some other reason… you know what, I agree that she just should have accepted the lemonade. But this isn’t zero-sum thinking.
*Although contrary to some… creative… interpretations of the article I found Googling for it, Savage seems quite civil, if perhaps eccentric.
**I’m skeptical of the ability of a lemonade stand to have much of an effect one way or the other.
Regarding the anathema some people have for giving away things for free. There was a recent article by Terry Savage in the Chicago Sun Times on some children giving away free lemonade at a lemonade stand. She proceeded to lecture them that they couldn’t give away the lemonade for free, and then used that anecdote to explain all the problems of the nation on the idea that giving away things for free was ok. The mindset that she expressed is what I was thinking about when I wrote what I did.
The story was picked up and there are are a number of responses that show her logic to be somewhat flawed. If you google it you can find them.
Looked up the article. Granted that Savage doesn’t sound like she was as tactful as she should have been*, she is correct in that lemonade really does have an opportunity cost.
Indeed, I think it’s trivial to show that Savage’s actions were not a result of zero-sum bias. If she were just trying to maximize resources for herself on the basis that there’s a limited supply of stuff, she should just accept the lemonade. After all, she’d have both the lemonade and the money then. Yet, she argued for a position that would have made her worse off if she did perceive the situation as a zero-sum game.
Instead, as Savage writes in her reply to the criticism, she figured that the girls would be better off running the lemonade stand as a model business, as it would teach them lessons that would improve their future earning and society as a whole**. Given this belief, her action of trying to convince the girls to accept payment is the “positive-sum thinking” you seem to be talking about.
If you want to say that Savage’s actions were wrong for some other reason… you know what, I agree that she just should have accepted the lemonade. But this isn’t zero-sum thinking.
*Although contrary to some… creative… interpretations of the article I found Googling for it, Savage seems quite civil, if perhaps eccentric.
**I’m skeptical of the ability of a lemonade stand to have much of an effect one way or the other.