Thursday, October 03, 2019

The Chicago Boys

It can be said that Mi [Man i] loves Fj [Female J] if her welfare enters his utility function, and perhaps also if Mi values emotional and physical contact with Fj. Clearly, Mi can benefit from a match with Fj, because he could then have a more favorable effect on her welfare - and thereby on his own utility - and because the commodities measuring 'contact' with Fj can be produced more cheaply when they are matched than when Mi has to seek an 'illicit' relationship with Fj."

--G. Becker.

[The "commodity" measuring contact being children].

Here's another cracker from the man:

“In the early stages of my work on crime, I was puzzled by why theft is socially harmful since it appears merely to redistribute resources, usually from wealthier to poorer individuals. I resolved the puzzle (Becker [1968, fn. 3] by recognizing that criminals spend on weapons and on the value of the time in planning and carrying out their crimes, and that such spending is socially unproductive – it is what is now called “rent-seeking..” 

 "From the perspective of capital, what most of us see as tremendous 
ethical and even existential problems literally don’t count." 

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