Forum Post: Assume an Economist

WIZARDRY ON THE FRONTIER

The story goes something like this:

A new graduate from the Harvard Business School was about to sign on for his first day as an Analyst on Wall Street. Somewhat early and over-anxious, he calls into the ‘Bullish Perk’ for a coffee to steady his nerves - and finds himself sitting opposite to an exotic character who looks a bit like Sir Ian McKellen togged up for Halloween.

The older man befriends the neophyte and then tells him that, as the winner of this year’s Jonny Appleseed Prize, he has also won Three Wishes. However, these must relate to the basic principles of Economics. He also warns that, as excessive abstraction has an adverse affinity to magic, he will not be able to invoke econometrics.

The young man thinks carefully about the proposition and all the good that he can do.

First off, he wishes that generally ‘Bygones are Bygones’. Instantly, the clouds of debt that have darkened the Western World dissipate and consumerism starts to revitalize before his eyes.

“Maybe we should stop there?’ he asks the Wizard. But the catch is that Three Wishes are mandatory, and remembering the Fairy Tales of his childhood, he fears inadvertent outbursts.

Desperately, he makes a second wish that generally there is ‘Perfect Competition’.

In a flash, he is transported to 19th Century Iowa where he watches at the rail head as burly men with competent wives unload large families, together with the tools and livestock required to develop farms from virgin land.

Armed with deeds for 360 acre sections and an aversion to debt, they set off to develop farms with their own labour. Meanwhile, competent and fair-minded artisans, merchants and bankers proliferate and compete vigorously to provide services.

[That this is somewhat at odds with the realities of the frontier according to 'Once upon a Time in the West' would not altogether surprise our wily Wizard].

And as the Analyst watches growing community collaboration to provide public services, along with the birth of virtuous democratic institutions, he thinks to himself: ‘This isn’t so bad – maybe I did the right thing’. The only discordant note comes from a Winnebago Indian who is slumped outside the local saloon, demoralized, lecherous and drunk.

After a good deal of humming and some hawing, the young man blurts out his final wish that generally ‘Resources will be Valued at Opportunity Cost’.

Immediately, there is marked increase in the economic tempo of the town – but, to his considerable dismay, he finds that he has become a beautiful young Winnebago squaw.