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1、1RESPONSES TO THE DISCUSSION QUESTIONS OF CHAPTER 1:1. This question highlights the significant but widely-overlooked fact that a great deal of important cooperation occurs among people who know absolutely nothing about one another. A married couple planning a vacation together typically cooperates
2、by using extensive and detailed knowledge of each others preferences, habits, allergies, and so on. But the people who cooperated to make orange juice, cereal, milk, and coffee available to Boettke this morning didnt even know that Boettke exists or, for the most part, about the existence of the oth
3、ers whose cooperation helped to produce his breakfast. Economic theory is especially useful in explaining how cooperation occurs in cases of the latter sort, and also why cooperation sometimes fails to occur. 2. Drivers would have little trouble deciding they were on urgent missions, and the “urgent
4、“ lane would probably be just as crowded as all the others. Even in a world of unselfish drivers, it would be impossible for drivers to assess the relative urgency of their own and other drivers missions. Moreover, the more inconsiderate drivers would be most ready to use the “urgent“ lanes, so that
5、 such a system would end up providing a time subsidy to the projects of more selfish drivers through a time tax on the projects of more considerate drivers. 3. Since Mother Teresa was interested in building a leprosarium, she clearly furthered her own interest in doing so. But it would be odd to cal
6、l this “selfish behavior.“ Acting in ones own interest is selfish only if ones interests are selfish. Contrary to what many economists carelessly assert, economic theory does not assume that everyone behaves selfishly. Perhaps economists even mislead people when they say that “people act in their ow
7、n interest.“ It might be better to say that people act to promote the projects in which they are interested. That avoids the misleading suggestion that economic theory postulates selfish or greedy behavior. It does not do so. Did Mother Teresa economize? Sure. She decided how to best use her $190,00
8、0 award. She could have donated it all to the Jerry Lewis Telethon, invested it in Yahoo! stock, or donated it for the purchase of new books at the Calcutta Library. She instead used the award to promote what she believed was the most urgent project demanding her attention. Because that award could
9、have been used for other valuable projects, she economized. She selected the most valuable use in her view - for that money. 4. The author of that newspaper item was probably trying to distinguish between mothers whose primary goal is additional income when they choose to work, and mothers whose pri
10、mary goal is something else, such as the satisfaction of a fulfilling career, or an opportunity to escape the insistent demands of their children. But both kinds of mothers choose to work, although some choose joyfully and others no doubt choose with sadness and regret. 5. We could interpret these r
11、esults as evidence that people are ashamed to admit an interest in financial rewards. Alternatively, the results may indicate that people are less charitable in judging other peoples behavior than in judging their own. People recognize the complexity of their own motivations more readily than they c
12、oncede the complexity of other peoples motivations. But even if the financial rewards are not a prime factor in most peoples decision to attend law school, they surely play some role in almost everyones choice. Changes in the income prospects of lawyers will therefore affect the number of people cho
13、osing to enter law school.26. Adam Smith argued in The Theory of Moral Sentiments (also written in the 1700s) that people want to increase their money incomes primarily in order to enhance their status. But Colin Campbell, a British sociologist, recently argued that another factor is important. He a
14、rgues that the insatiable desire for additional consumer goods has its roots in the practice of daydreaming, and that it expresses a desire to experience in reality something that has previously been enjoyed in imagination. If this theory strikes you as far-fetched, read Campbells cogent essay on “C
15、onsuming Goods and the Good of Consuming“ in Critical Review, Vol. 8, No. 4 (Fall, 1994). 7. People will start planning to arrive later (because the meetings never start on time), which will induce nonpunctual people to arrive still later, and so on until tardiness becomes general. The actual starti
16、ng time for meetings will become increasingly difficult to predict. 8. Many rules have developed to define the rights and responsibilities of university employeespresident, deans, professors, registrar, custodians, department heads, and many others. The human and physical resources of universities are organized each term in a complex dance that produces more order than chaos because university employees
