Eduardo Porter: "The Price of Everything"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-01-06/eduardo-porter-price-everything
Everything has a price. At each crossroad of our lives, prices nudge us to take one course of action or another. Goods or services are measured in money, cash or credit. Costs and benefits can also be set in love, toil, or time. Many of the prices we pay appear to make little sense. We seek out coffee at Starbucks, while a similar brew may cost half as much at the corner deli. The prices we are willing to pay also reveal how much we value less tangible things like life, happiness – even our faith. A look at the role prices play in every aspect of our lives – even those we don’t think of as economic.
Guests
Eduardo Porter
member of The New York Times's editorial board.
Comments
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My husband and I always wanted to have 3 children, but due to the current economic times and analyzing how much more income we were bound to earn in the next 20 years, we had to stop at 2 children. We wanted to make sure we provided our children with the best education and opportunities the world has to offer. We figured we could work on those goals with 2 children but not threee. We have a rambunctious 2 1/2 year old boy and a darling firecracker 7 month old girl.
It's funny, I've seen that people get fooled by the idea that higher prices equal higher quality.
While I typically buy spices and specialty foods at local ethnic food stores, I find that those stores have sometimes a third of the price for spices as opposed to normal grocery stores.
Even though I go to the ethnic stores for those items, I wonder if the spices are lower quality, and wonder why others buy these items from normal grocery stores at all.
As Mr. Porter highlights, we tend to pay a great deal for items that win us personal benefits, not least intangibles such as social recognition and prestige.
At the same time, as a caller noted, the public is reluctant to pay for many public needs and good works, such as preventing climate change -- or paying the high taxes that public services require.
Could this imbalance be redressed by awarding wider recognition, gratitude and prestige to those who do contribute, including voluntary services and the now virtually invisible payment of taxes of different kinds?
Kudos to Diane for her last comment about teachers! Amen, sister! America is sooooooo hypocritical when it comes to education. On one hand we say how important it is to educate our children (our future leaders), yet teachers get paid abysmal salaries and our education system is sorely lacking. And yes, speaking as someone who has worked in the field and will be returning to the field as a full time high school teacher, good teachers should be rewarded (just like the guys on Wall Street). I mean, it's not rocket science: if you're good at your job and you can show results, you get a pay raise, bonus, etc.
Hello Diane & Eduardo,
Re: Christmas tree prices:
Growers of Christmas trees are farmers. As in all farming the cost of growing = labor, equipmt, & gas prices. The crop's success is subject to weather. Getting the tree from seed-harvest can take 5-15 years, depending on variety. Slower-growing species (ie: Fraser Fir) demand a higher price.
The industry of real trees is supply/demand, & has had its ups & downs in competition with the fake tree ind. It fluctuates according to more trees of harvest size, bringing prices down; thus a small harvest sees prices go up. And - by big box stores buying large numbers at lower prices, which hurts smaller growers.
A tree lot buys from smaller farms, & the lot itself has much expense in being set up for just one month each year. Big cities have regulations on how & what to set up, permits, licenses, etc, let alone labor, & buying, then transporting the trees to the lot.
My husband & I are tree growers, and have suffered and profited from bad and good years, due to weather, gas prices, and now the economy. This is not a hobby business - it IS our year-round profession, & as in all farming our annual income is only paid back at the time of harvest. We've seen wholesale prices flux wildly during our 20 yrs in business. Extreme weather, ie: this past month, can wipe out our profits overnight.
All farming is risky, and your caller only need watch the prices of produce to see the same effects. Would she be willing to plant, nurture, mow, & shear a tree for 15 years, for a $5 profit to wholesale it, or would she prefer $10? Which would be more reasonable? Would she take a drastic cut in pay in her profession due to a blizzard?
Farmers, like teachers, are the most underpaid & under-appreciated of our nation's professions. Oddly, they are both producing things we cannot live without. I am sure your guest has noticed this irony in his research!
thank you, and have a great 2011!
Topic and book are apropos for these times. In the wake of 911 and, more recently, the financial/housing market collapse, more folks are re-evaluating what's important to them. This affects the price they are willing to pay in the future for the excesses they perceived would bring happiness. Things formerly considered to be highly valued no longer matter that much. Thus, simpler things like a stay-cation with the family becomes more valued than a cruise on an ocean liner (where they might get sick or the boat loses power and becomes stranded on the water for days). This kind of re-evalution is depicted in my post at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWNSNQCK7zU
With all due respect to the teacher(s)...NOBODY, repeat, NOBODY should be rip off like the Wall Streeters ripped off this country....
With all due respect to the teacher(s)...NOBODY, repeat, NOBODY should be rip off like the Wall Streeters ripped off this country....
"Life is the sum of all your choices." Albert Camus
your guest's argument regarding the Starbucks coffee is baloney. All that added "social value" goes out the window when you stand in line for 15 minutes for your latte and then get in your car and drive away. Claptrap.
I'd love an economist like Eduardo to explain how the corporate sports industries swing obscene earnings and equally astronomical salaries for the players while at the same time building new opulent stadiums, state of the art everything; travel accommodations, medical, food, technology, etc. The list is beyond my imagination.
And please, follow the money. Because I think it starts with every one of us at the grocery store where a box of cereal, for example, cost twenty cents to produce and $3.78 at check out. Multiply by everything in the cart, every shopping trip. Compensate for middle men and there is still plenty to fuel sponsorship accounts. You, I, We, are paying 100 MILLION DOLLARS over seven years to one PLAYER. Combine all the salaries and earnings of teams and all associated supporting cast. I doubt that ticket sales, T.V. rights, merchandise, etc. pay the bills.
Are we the people unwittingly sponsoring socialistic sports? If so I want it to stop because they aren't worth those wages and they literally get away with murder. I'll pay to put food on my families table but not so much that a jock can live the life style they do at our expense.
As an after thought; BEER. No thanks to all the companies that contribute to the dumbing down of our once great culture. Are the refreshment (poison) manufactures making enough? Are they protected from lawsuits like the tobacco industries? Are their advertisements targeted only to adults? NO!
Sports and recreation are great pursuits so lets get off our fat buts and participate not just passively cheer on the gladiators.
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