A pair of parables

In the grand Bastiatan tradition, we first have Seamus Hogan on welfare economics:

• Offering the other kid’s bat (Offsetting Behaviour)

I did get my chance one day when a ball got hit irretrievably onto a classroom roof and one of the boys who was batting at the time offered to let me bat if I let them use a ball I had brought to school that day. There was no cost to me from this trade, so I thought it more a generous act of social welfare from the boy making the offer rather than a market trade. To my horror, however, he promptly went over to the other boy who was batting, wrenched the bat out of his hand, gave it to me, and continued batting himself.

Next, Don Boudreaux rebuts abstract aggregate macro:

• Aggregate Healthiness (Cafe Hayek)

A team of the world’s finest physicians and pathologists combine to create a measure of “Gross Bodily Health” (GBH).  The higher is a person’s GBH, the healthier he or she is.

[…]

The main determinant of GBH is called “aggregate healthiness” (AH).  Aggregate healthiness changes for any number of reasons – for example, a change in the frequency of a person’s exercise or a change in a person’s diet.  Higher AH, common sense tells us, causes higher GBH.

[…]

Jones goes to his physician and finds that his GBH is dangerously low.  “What should I do?” Jones asks his doctor.

“Increase your AH – your aggregate healthiness” the doctor helpfully responds.

“How?”

“Oh, it doesn’t matter.  Jog, take blood-pressure medication if you think you have high blood-pressure, stop smoking if you smoke, exercise more.  Anything to raise your AH.  What’s important is that you get your AH up!”

I’ll post about beer later.  Carry on.