Giving a present might make you feel good. But as an economic transaction, economists consider it inefficient. “So when I give up $50 worth of utility to buy a present for you, the chances are high that you’ll value it at less than $50. If so, there’s been a mutual loss of utility. The transaction has been inefficient and “welfare reducing”, thus making it irrational. As an economist would put it, “unless a gift that costs the giver p dollars exactly matches the way in which the recipient would have spent the p dollars, the gift is suboptimal”.”
Tag: 12.24.03
LA’s Billion-Dollar Redeveopment Plan
Now that Disney Hall is open in Los Angeles, city leaders have their sights set on redeveloping more of the area. That could be a $1.2 billion collection of new buildings. “Planners envision a spectacular mixed-use project that would combine housing, shopping, dining and entertainment opportunities on both sides of Grand Avenue south of 1st Street.” The project has drawn top architects from around the world, say planners…
Czech Workers Demand Employers Stop Playing Christmas Music
Labor unions in the Czech Republic have demanded that employers stop playing Christmas carols in department stores of “pay compensation for causing emotional trauma to sales clerks.” The unions have “written to major chains and demanded that employees be compensated. He said the unions want $19 or two days off as a possible compensation. They’ve received no response.”
A NC Town And A Difficult Statue
The North Carolina town of Rocky Mount wanted to erect a statue to Martin Luther King as a tribute to the fact that Dr. King gave one of the first versions of his “I have a dream” speech. But the sculpture has been problematic – townspeople objected to the likeness of the statue, the sculptor has been protested, and…
A Big Job In Detroit
Whoever becomes the Detroit Symphony’s next executive director will have a lot of work to do. Not only is the orchestra searching for a new music director, “the DSO has run operating losses of about $3 million the last three years, including a $1.8-million shortfall in 2003, its largest deficit in more than a decade. A $1-million transfer from its endowment two years ago leaves the accumulated deficit at $2.2 million.”
Should Barnes Temporarily “Sell” Some Art To Survive?
Is survival of the Barnes Collection depandant on moving to downtown Philadelphia? Another “solution” has been proposed by art dealer James Maroney. “The plan, which Maroney considers a form of legal “tenancy in common,” appears relatively simple: A selected number of Barnes’ paintings, not currently on display, would be sold to interested art collectors for the duration of the buyers’ lifetimes, but returned to the Barnes Foundation upon their deaths. Maroney said that the novel plan would raise money while imposing less “damage to Dr. Barnes’ vision than certain other proposals … .”
Light Up London (But No Controversial Images, Please)
A holiday project to project images on buildings in London has hit a snag. “The project began with the projection of sunflowers onto the Wellington Arch at Hyde Park Corner on December 2 and has grown slowly, culminating with the illumination of Buckingham Palace tonight. All 10 buildings in the scheme will then be lit up each evening until New Year’s Eve. But pictures commissioned by pop star Damon Albarn – one of many celebrities taking part at the request of co-organiser Bob Geldof – proved too contentious to be projected onto London venues such as the National Theatre.”
Victor Gruen, Father Of The American Shopping Mall
Victor Gruen was a German emigre who came to the United States, and created the quintessential shopping mall. “Gruen was a classic American type, the brilliant and driven immigrant who struggles to achieve wealth and influence but who yearns most of all for legitimacy. Like the immigrants who built Hollywood, Gruen combined art and commerce in new ways that captured something deep in the American psyche. His powerfully demotic designs helped pave the way for the egalitarian suburban landscape most Americans choose to live in today.”