p.64. [...] markets are not mere mechanisms. They embody certain norms. They presuppose-and promote-certain ways of valuing the goods being exchanged.
Economists often assume that markets do not touch or taint the goods they regulate. But this is untrue. Markets leave their mark on social norms.
p.86. Conceiving economics as the study of incentives does more than extend the reach of markets into everyday life. It also casts the economist in an activist role. The "shadow" prices that Gary Becker invoked in the 1970s to explain human behavior were implicit, not actual. They were metaphorical prices that the economist imagines, posits, or infers. Incentives, by contrast, are interventions that the economist(or policy maker) designs, engineers, and imposes on the world.
p.178. "What's true of baseball is actually true of a much wider range of human activity."(Larry Summers)
p.233. From the time I was an undergraduate, I've been intrigued by the normative implications of economics.
Ruth W. Grant, "Ethics and Incentives: A Political Approach"
Alex Tabarrok, "Giving to My Wild Self"
Giving to my Wild Self - Marginal REVOLUTION
The economist in me says the best gift is cash. The rest of me rebels. Some people argue that the reason we don’t give cash is because that is too easy – to show that we know the person well we must signal by shopping for something "special." Yet this ca
marginalrevolution.com
Stephen J. Dubner and Steven D. Levitt, "The Gift-Card Economy"
The Gift-Card Economy
When you buy somebody a present, who really comes out ahead?
www.nytimes.com
구체적이고 친근한 예로 가득해서 읽기 수월하다. 특히 5장은 익숙한 야구 얘기가 잔뜩 나와 더 흥미진진했다. 대중을 대상으로 한 도서라 상식 수준에 머무른다는 느낌이 강해 살짝 아쉽다.
이 책에서 여러 번 강조하는 굵직한 이슈에 대한 치열한 논의가 현실적으로 얼마나 어려운지 생각해보면 새삼 씁쓸해진다. 토론, 소통, 협치, 배려, 이해 등의 단어들이 효과적으로 작동하는 곳은 온갖 선언문 성격의 연설과 칼럼뿐이니... 앞의 단어들을 입에 달고 살면서도 누군가 아주 사소한 의견 차이만 보이면 무찔러야할 적처럼 여기는 나의 일상은 어떠한가...