Stigler, George. 1945. The Cost of Subsistence." Journal of Farm Economics, 27 (May): pp. 303-14.
We now know that that diet would not do much for life expectance, except for people who are in dire need since he was looking for a minimum of only a few nutrients rather than a balanced diet.
Brad De Long wrote:
> >Doug:
> >
> > >JKSCHW at aol.com wrote:
> > >>Has it occurred to you that the only other bunch of academics
> >other than the
> > >>pomists to talk about Desire are the neoclassical economists and rational
> > >>choice theorists?
> > >
> > >Um, uh, what about poets, psychoanalysts, and lovers, not to mention
> > >Iggy Pop? Who said anything about limiting the universe to academics?
> >
> >Justin's remarks on Desire are on the mark. Surely we'd do well to
> >remember the fact that introductory textbooks on Economics all begin
> >with the discussion of Desire & Scarcity. In the world of Econ 101,
> >it is the abstraction called Desire -- unlimited wants -- that makes
> >us all, rich or poor, experience Scarcity.
>
> Yet it does seem to be true that the line between need and useful
> convenience on the one hand and embarrassingly decadent luxury on the
> other sets in at roughly twice one's current level of consumption--no
> matter what one's current level of consumption is.
>
> Or, as George Stigler put it:
>
> "It would be easy to provide everyone with a physiologically adequate
> diet; for example, a [hu]man could perhaps live for a year on the
> following diet, at a cost of about $8 a month in 1950:
>
> --370 pounds of wheat flour
> --57 cans of evaporated milk
> --111 pounds of cabbage
> --25 pounds of spinach
> --285 pounds of dried navy beans.
>
> "But [hu]man insists upon luxuries such as meat, and should we
> somehow fully satisfy his desire (despite his penchant for shifting
> from sow belly to pheasant), he will no doubt insist upon shifting to
> another and more expensive food.
>
> "Thus, from an Olympian peak, one may say that the economic system
> has as its purpose forcing people to find new scarcities. From a
> closer vantage point, the study of economics has as its purpose the
> alteration of a host of circumstances and policies that deprive large
> numbers of people of eminently desirable things a more efficiently
> organized society could afford..." (From The Theory of Price, (New
> York: Macmillan, 1952), pp. 2-3.
>
> And, indeed, when I posted the Chez Panisse dinner menu (which has
> changed; today it is all fish even though it is not yet Lent:
>
> --An aperitif
> --Smoked fish salad with pickled Chino Ranch greens
> --Truffled scrambled eggs with Dungeness crab and garlic croutons
> --Black sea bass cooked on its skin; with roasted root
> vegetables, fried onions, and garden lettuces
> --Hazelnut, coffee, and chocolate ice cream bombe)
>
> One of the first comments was "how about wine?"...
>
> :-)
>
> Brad DeLong
--
Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University michael at ecst.csuchico.edu Chico, CA 95929 530-898-5321 fax 530-898-5901