AbeBooks Official Site - New & Used Books, New & Used Textbooks, Rare & Out of Print Books. Mystery Books Book Clubs, Gift Certificates, Newsletters, Book Reviews. Compare prices on new and used books and college textbooks. AddALL book search and price comparison. Wired.com. Lifehacker, tips and downloads for getting things done. Home. DRUDGE REPORT 2011® Seth's Blog. We still teach a lot of myths in the intro to economics course, myths that spill over to conventional wisdom. Human beings make rational decisions in our considered long-term best interest. Actually, behavioral economics shows us that people almost never do this.
Our decision-making systems are unpredictable, buggy and often wrong. We are easily distracted, and even more easily conned. Every time we assume that people are profit-seeking, independent, rational actors, we've made a mistake. The free market is free. The free market only works because it has boundaries, rules and methods of enforcement.
Profit is a good way to demonstrate the creation of value. In fact, it's a pretty lousy method. Profit is often a measure of short-term imbalances or pricing power, not value. I hope we can agree that a caring nurse in the pediatric oncology ward adds more value than a well-paid cosmetic plastic surgeon doing augmentations. The best way to measure value created is to measure value, not profit. Help. Denver Broncos. NFL Team News, Scores, Standings, Schedules, Stats & Transactions.