On Apr 6, 2007, at 2:10 PM, Carrol Cox wrote:
> What's wrong with an inefficient allocation?
Depends on what you're talking about. That pic that Andy F, I think, pointed to - of a guy driving his SUV to the gym while his dog ran alongside on a leash - is a bad kind of inefficiency. The practice of my landlord, The New Press, of running the a/c all winter because parts of the office are poorly ventilated, is a bad kind of inefficiency. (Ceiling fans? How boring!) The practice of rich people keeping their multiple houses largely empty while millions are homeless is a bad kind of inefficiency. There's something to be said for Pareto optimality, too. But the inefficiency of la dolce fa' niente - sweetly doing nothing, as they say in Umbria - that's a kind of inefficiency we could use more of.
Doug