3 thoughts on “Fairness & bad economics

  1. Jandy

    Yeah, I saw that earlier today, and it made sense to me, too. My gut reaction to the quoted example was that only a 50-50 split was acceptable, which fits right in with the psychological drive for “fairness.” But when I thought about it logically, the question shouldn’t really be “am I getting the same as everyone else” (even if it’s $0), but “am I getting more than I otherwise would.” If you ask the second question, getting $10 is better than getting $0, no matter how much other other guy gets.

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  2. mark Post author

    “I saw that earlier today”

    Well, yeah, you shared it through google reader and I posted the link without attribution. Sorry! I was rushing.

    (Also, I wasn’t sure how to do a hat tip when there was no where to link for the specific reference)

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