Detour

The masked economics Killah has been unveilied? What happened…the secret police at Uris Hall must have pu a lot of pressure on the release of the truth…I hope the econazis didn’t bruise you Shane.

Fresh from the presses.

My name is Shane Murphy. I am a first year graduate student in economics. I plan on studying development. I am good at math and bad at macro. This semester I am taking math, micro, macro, probability, and game theory. I once wrote under an anonymous identity at a blog called corneconomics. At that time I was occasionally told my writing was too harsh. I was originally writing for a growing audience, and I used “shock-blogging” to see how quickly I could gain a following. As such, some of my posts were immature. This reflects my immaturity, and thus I feel no action is currently necessary, those posts stand. The change in policy is meant to force me to write posts that are ethically more defensible (I should not present baseless accusations as fact).

Internet identity, like all identity, is a construct. We joined together in an experiment in believing that an anonymous, disgruntled economics student was posting at Cornell. Of course neither of these were necessarily true for the author, but it was useful to believe them in order to enjoy the posts. I enjoyed writing the posts, but my time as the prime mover of the internet identity “corneconomics” is over. As time has passed, one and both of the characteristics - of anonymity and dissatisfaction - were occasionally taken from this identity (at least in the corridors of Uris Hall here on campus). Thus, this blog will continue in a less anonymous fashion, with complaints in a more measured form. For continuity, the address will remain the same, but the posts may change (slightly). I hope to be less combative, but remain playful.
Backposted on 23 October 2006

I feel soooo popular on the corneconomics blog, my name keeps coming up in the comments section…and I haven’t been at that university for nearly two years.

The anonymous writer of corneconomics recently wrote a post about global warming that inspired the following comment…

…If we’re going to attempt to deny the issue, shouldn’t we cite sources (since it is outside of our field)? Perhaps a dismissive attitude is not based on any presented scientific data but instead based on political leanings?

To which corneconimics responds…

Hmm, the point is that I don’t really give a fuck. Look, I’m sitting here at my pollution causing computer, drinking my slave trade coffee, and driving a car five blocks to the grocery store. I may say I care (and I do say such bullshit), but it is quite obvious that I don’t. I do like to make fun of movies from the early 1990s, link to obscure articles about the failures of politicians, and quote Bruce Springsteen. That was the real purpose of this post.

I appreciate coreconomics honesty on the matter. The fact is that most people really don’t care, for all of the reasons that are listed above. If people truly cared, they would all ride the bus, compost their kitchen scarps , and demand lights in unused university rooms be turned off…but they don’t. If you ask the average person, they will tell you they care…but their actions tell another story.

I find that declarations about the belief in God have similar inconsistencies. The most blatant example is when a rapper writes a song called ‘bitches aint shit’, wins a Grammy, and then thanks God for his success. If you truly thought there was a God judging you on the content of your character would you write a song called ‘bitches aint shit’? Would you thank God after winning awards for the aforementioned song? The answer is obviously no. The average American will tell you they believe in God and then turn around and masturbate…If you truly believed God was watching and judging you…would you do that? This is the same sort of mendacity used by the average person when they declare their belief that global warming is a man-made problem. Corneconomics is honest about his apathy.

Most people only care up to the point that doing something is more painful then doing nothing. I care but if I have to sacrifice, I don’t care anymore is the attitude most people have. But if you ask them, they would never admit to it…they don’t want to seem like heartless hypocrites…so they say what they think people want to hear. So when someone like corneconomics is honest enough to say they don’t give a damn, you have to respect the openness and honesty of that statement. Once people are honest about there apathy it would be easier to have a discussion about the implications and causes of global warming.

From Berkeley 2006…

Pictured above is a self-service wine kiosk at a restaurant called Taste (two doors down from the world famous Chez Panisse) that we ate at a few weeks ago. We intended on eating at the Chez Panisse Cafe, but since it was Sunday (Chez Panisse is closed on Sunday…oh bother!) we ended up at Taste. The food at Taste is wonderful, everything is fresh and of a fine quality. The salad with hard boiled quail eggs and fingerling potatoes is highly recommended. I guess you have to perform well when you are next door to a culinary legend…no pressure

When you sit down at Taste a wine card is issued to you. You take the card and a wine glass to one of the wine kiosk’s, swipe the card, and get a one ounce poor to ‘Taste’. Each wine has an individual price displayed varying from a few dollars to oh my god!

Seeing this model reminded me of something I have been toying with in my mind for years. The idea is to have a constantly changing menu board with prices fluctuating according to the popularity of each dish. As a dish is ordered more the price will begin to climb. If a dish goes un-ordered for a while the price continually drops. The customers can wait for their favorite dish to go down in price…but if they wait to long (and someone else orders it) they could end up paying even more for the dish then normal. Then again…the price could be half of the average price. It just depends on the popularity that day. The goal of the restaurant, from the owners perspective, is that all of the perishable food is used up everyday using a market clearing principle. If a dish continually sells below cost…then it should be limited or removed from the menu. Popular dishes should have increased resources devoted to them.

From a customer perspective, there is an element of fun that normally is only experienced at art auctions or eBay. You could get your favorite dish for the lowest price you ever paid…or…pass on your overpriced dish (because too many people are ordering it) and try another dish that seems to be a bargain…who knows, maybe the new dish will be your new favorite.

I wish I was independently wealthy so that I could toy with this idea. I think it would be a successful business model…especially in a high traffic area.