Cafe Hayek: The New Yorker and the Beatles

« Are Real Estate Agents Overpaid? | Main | Liberal Values and Mandates» Don Boudreaux

March 10, 2006

The New Yorker and the Beatles

Don Boudreaux

Each week, the final page of the New Yorker is devoted to that magazine's "Cartoon Caption Contest." The contest is this: a single-frame cartoon is presented with no caption. Readers are invited to submit their own captions.

In the next-week's issue, that cartoon appears again, but beneath it are three "finalists" captions -- the captions that the editors choose as being the three best submitted for that cartoon.

Readers are then invited to vote (online, of course) on which of the three captions is the best. Then, two weeks after the uncaptioned cartoon first appeared in the magazine, it appears for a third time -- this third time featuring the winning caption.

The first thing that struck me about this "caption contest" is the difficulty I have trying to think up clever captions. With rare exceptions, each new uncaptioned cartoon is one that sparks in me no clever ideas. I try and try, but almost always come up empty-minded.

So when each cartoon appears for its second time, with the three "finalists" captions printed beneath it, I'm consistently and considerably impressed by how imaginative, witty, and clever people are.

I'm looking now at the March 13th issue of the New Yorker. This week's uncaptioned cartoon shows a 60-ish couple walking into a church filled with a well-stocked bar and two unshaven bar bums gazing disinterestedly at this couple's entrance. The man entering the church has his wife on one arm, a bible in the other, and his mouth is open, saying something.

But what's he saying? I'll be darned if I can think of a clever caption to put in his mouth.

Now I look just above this cartoon to the one first printed in last-week's issue. Each of the three "finalists" captions that accompany last-week's cartoon are very, very good -- indeed, one is rip-roaringly funny.

One of these "finalists" captions was submitted by a Mr. Mako from Connecticut; another by a Mr. Cassidy from California; and the third by a Mr. Flores from Florida.

Now suppose the New Yorker starts a policy of not accepting captions submitted by anyone living west of the Mississippi. What would happen to the quality of the captions? It would fall. Mr. Cassidy's caption wouldn't have been considered simply because he lives in Los Angeles.

But even if this week's three best "finalists" captions were all submitted by people living east of the Mississippi, the quality of the captions will inevitably fall over time -- perhaps not next week or even two weeks from now. It's quite possible that the best captions during the next few weeks all will be submitted by people living east of the Mississippi.

But how will we know? With Californians, Minnesotans, Texans and other westerners prevented from contributing their creative ideas to the cartoons -- prevented from competing with easterners in the Cartoon Caption Contest -- we can't possibly know that any caption that actually wins the magazine's contest in any week is truly the best that is humanly possible.

And so it is with investors and products. By preventing certain people from investing in your country because they aren't citizens of your country, or by preventing certain people from selling goods and services in your country because they are produced by people who aren't citizens of your country, you diminish the size of the pool of creative ideas available to help you.

I'm reminded here of one of Paul McCartney's lines in his lyrics for the Beatles' song "We Can Work It Out":

Think of what you're saying. You can get it wrong and still you think that it's alright.

Think of what I'm saying: creative human insights are the driving force of our prosperity. By allowing xenophobia and protectionist rent-seekers to restrict the number of people who contribute their ideas to the market process, we inevitably reduce -- and perhaps even reverse -- the rate of economic growth. Our prosperity will be lower and lower than it would otherwise be.

And this lower rate of economic growth and the correspondingly lower standard of living might well never be revealed by the data.

Posted by Don Boudreaux in Competition, Standard of Living, Trade | Permalink

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a00d834518ccc69e200d8341f51ab53ef

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference The New Yorker and the Beatles:

» consolidation loan program student from consolidation federal loan student
Loans Home Equity Loans - Home Mortgage Student Loans [Read More]

Tracked on May 27, 2006 2:37:05 PM

» equity loan from loan personal
Loans Home Equity Loans - Home Mortgage Student Loans [Read More]

Tracked on Jun 12, 2006 9:16:52 PM

Comments

If you did not see it yet...

their Oscar coverage was great

Posted by: Annie | Mar 10, 2006 3:50:42 PM

same is true of welfare programs etc. You might think you are helping the poor but you do not see how they would have been before the program if the program didn't exist.

In other words, if you only look at how the poor are doing *right before* and *right after* they get help from the government, you miss how they would have been doing *if there was no government help*. So you miss the endogenous effects of the government program, including the drag on growth - jobs, wages, etc caused by higher taxes and fewer productive workers.

Posted by: liberty | Mar 10, 2006 4:25:47 PM

As women and minorities joined the U.S. management and professional workforce the past 35 years, did decision making and quality of work increase? I would guess so. I'm not sure productivity measures tell the whole story. Work of housewives is not included in labor statistics but the daycare and housecleaning workers who replaced them are.

Posted by: John Dewey | Mar 10, 2006 5:41:24 PM

That was long, but illustrative way, of saying that changing the DPW deal was counter to our economic interests. But still, well said.

Posted by: P:atrick | Mar 11, 2006 7:51:25 AM

Hence all the talk of the Chinese "threat" is so misguided. Given the policies of socialists/liberals, the *entire* world has been harmed by these dangerous policies restricting human freedom, creativity and hence growth. Had it not been for Karl Marx et al, we'd all be much better off economically today, not just those in China, Russia etc.

Posted by: gary | Mar 11, 2006 12:57:59 PM

You must check out Dan Radosh's anti-caption contest.
http://www.radosh.net/archive/001434.html

p.s. HTML-enabled comments would also be nice...

Posted by: Meredith | Mar 12, 2006 1:35:33 PM

Don's reasoning can be used to illustrate the advantages of increasing population as well. Some argue that the world is no different to them whether there are 6 billion people or 12 billion people, but if 12 billion people means two Radioheads instead of one, it makes it a lot harder to be anti-growth.

Posted by: Paul N | Mar 12, 2006 11:00:57 PM

Contrariwise, isnt there an argument that more population growth leads to more bad ideas. Like, look at the damage ideologues like Marx have caused. Im not 100% sure this is so clear-cut.

Posted by: gary | Mar 13, 2006 1:34:18 AM

hey nice blog

Posted by: diana | Mar 13, 2006 7:35:14 AM

"That was long, but illustrative way, of saying that changing the DPW deal was counter to our economic interests."

Yes it was. And it occurs to me that we were told that the employees of the ports would be the same Americans no matter who owns them, so what does it really matter? It seems to me that the only interest hurt here is the foreign company that is unable to sell the ports, because that company will have to sell to a lower bidder.

So that's tough luck for them, but it doesn't hurt America.

Posted by: Half Sigma | Mar 13, 2006 11:02:51 PM

Half Sigma,

One could argue that the racism involved in rejecting the DPW deal, as opposed to sound economic or national security reasoning, is harmful to America.

One could argue that any future deals involving the sale of American property to foreigners (in particular to Arab firms) will result in lower resale values because of concern over buyer nationality.

Also, I just read a news article that mentions that Arab nations are now exchanging U.S. dollars for Euros causing the value of the dollar to be lower. Now, wether that's a harmful effect on the U.S. is another discussion, but there are effects.

Posted by: Scott | Mar 14, 2006 12:41:22 PM

"One could argue that the racism involved in rejecting the DPW deal, as opposed to sound economic or national security reasoning, is harmful to America."

I don't now why people would use the term "racism." This has nothing to do with race, it has to do with the religion of Dubai which is Islam and from which springs all the terrorists.

The reasoning is that a Dubai company is far more likely to be infiltrated by people who are sympathetic to terrorists and will pass information or port access to terrorists.

Whether an al-Qaeda operative working for DPW could actually do anything to hurt America given our port security procedures is a topic of a different debate, the but reason for discriminating against a Dubai company is pretty sound.

Posted by: Half Sigma | Mar 15, 2006 10:17:05 AM

"The lesson here, for those Arabs who hope to continue to spread their humongous oil revenue around the globe in the next few years, is that you cannot do business in a global economy under banana republic rules."
- USA Today, Editorial/Opinion, March 14, 2006

Arab is an ethnicity not a religion, so there are at least some people out there discriminating based on ethnicity. Besides the UAE is widely recognized as one of the most religiously tolerant countries in the Middle East. If your best rebuttal to my argument is that I was wrong to use the term "racism" because it's in fact discrimination based on religion rather than on race that killed the deal, you're still admitting that it's discrimination. As well, to claim that all terrorists follow Islam ("religion of Dubai which is Islam and from which springs all the terrorists") is neither true nor a valid reason to reject the deal. Unless I'm mistaken Timothy McVeigh was not a Muslim and of the close to 1 billion Muslim's in the world you're saying it's OK to discriminate based on the actions of a relative few?

Posted by: CalgaryGuy76 | Mar 15, 2006 11:12:09 AM

Yes, it's OK to discriminate against Muslim countries. If you don't understand why then you have a complete lack of common sense.

Posted by: Half Sigma | Mar 15, 2006 4:27:41 PM

As happens frequently on this blog, the pro-free market folks think that economics is the be-all and end-all of human existence. They conveniently ignore that lots of people are motivated by decidedly non-rational interests -- including killing infidels and spreading the influence of one ideology or another.

Deny it as much as you want, we still exist in a world where we have enemies who want to do us grievous harm. To attempt to analogize the economic relations between the Eastern and Western parts of the United States to the relations between the United States and other countries is ridiculous.

Query: Should the United States freely allow countries like Russia, China, and Iran to buy the latest military technology from American companies? How about buying the companies themselves? If not, why not? Obviously, because this would present a national security risk that outweighs whatever "creativity" or "efficiency" gains might be achieved in a more "open" marketplace. It is just won't do to throw out some economic platitudes in analyzing this type of problem.

Posted by: Steven M. Warshawsky | Mar 16, 2006 12:25:17 PM

I don't think it's a matter of economics being the be-all and end-all but it helps to understand what are the underlying fundamentals for making a decision.

In the DPW case it's clear that economic freedom is being traded off for another reason. I'm curious to know if it's simply bigotry or is there a solid case to be made regarding U.S. national security. I mean first of all these ports were already operated by a foreign country the issue is that now the "wrong" foreign country wants to operate them. Secondly, from the literature I've read, the U.S. always has and always will be responsible for the security at the ports it's just who owns and operates them.

If I'm missing something, by all means, point me in the right direction. But from what I've read the DPW issue is most likely a simple discrimination issue not based on solid U.S. national security concerns.

Posted by: Scott | Mar 16, 2006 1:25:24 PM

"But from what I've read the DPW issue is most likely a simple discrimination issue"

Yes, it's discrimination against a country where all the citizens are Islamic, and therefore a much higher percentage of its citizens are going to be al-Qaeda operatives.

Posted by: Half Sigma | Mar 16, 2006 3:46:58 PM

Scott, what I do not understand is the knee-jerk reaction that leads you to put ironic quotation marks around the word "wrong" when comparing Dubai and Great Britain (the other foreign country you are referring to).

Do you truly believe there are no relevant differences between these two countries? That we should approach our dealings with them from the exact same perspective? Do you really believe that we can trust all countries and all peoples equally? Surely not.

Yet, this seem to be where faith in the free market leads so many folks on this blog. How is this any different from the blinders worn by the Left, which believes that all humanity shares a common interest in socialism? I don't understand this impulse, shared by socialists and libertarians alike, to ignore or downplay unpleasant geopolitical realities that do not conform with their utopian models.

In the real world, we trade off economic freedom for other values and interests all the time. Sometimes these trade offs make sense; sometimes they don't. But the fact that a trade-off is being made, by itself, is not an argument against it.

Posted by: Steven M. Warshawsky | Mar 16, 2006 5:33:38 PM

casino mb -
casino on net -
casino partners -
casino pays -
casino tropez -
casino us -
cd casino -
cd poker -
cinema casino -
club dice casino -
club dice poker -
colosseum casino -
crazy vegas casino -
crazy vegas poker -
diamond club casino -
diamond club poker -
empire poker -
english habour -
english habour poker -
english habour uk -
ep -
europa casino -
gaming club -
gaming club poker -
gaming club uk -
goldgate casino -
gold key casino -
grand hotel casino -
grand prix lotto -
hammers casino -
home casino -
jackpot city -
joyland casino -
lucky nugget -
lucky nugget poker -
lucky nugget uk -
mad bingo -
magic oasis -
mapau bingo -
mapau casino -
mapau de -
maple casino -
miami beach -
millionaire casino -
monaco gold casino -
new york casino -
noble poker -
orbital casino -
party bingo -
party poker -
peach casino -
planet luck -
playgate casino -
playgate poker -
poker ocean -
poker show -
prestige bingo -
prestige casino -
prestige poker -
refer back -
river belle -
river belle poker -
royal plaza casino -
ruby bingo -
ruby bingo uk -
showdown casino -
silver dollar -
sports interaction -
star luck casino -
sunny diamonds -
sun vegas -
super slots -
super slots bingo -
titan poker -
usa casino -
vegas 7 casino -
vegas affiliates -
vegas country casino -
vegas joker casino -
vegas partner -
vegas red -
vegas slot casino -
windows casino -
you bingo -
3 diamonds casino -
49er casino -
50 stars casino -
all star affiliates -
bet 19 -
bet euro -
bet game day -
bet on games -
bet on races -
black pool bingo -
black widow casino -
break away casino -
cabaret club casino -
caribbean sun poker -
car sands -
casino france net -
casino king -
casino las vegas -
casino onliner -
casino profit share -
casino verano -
challenge casino -
cirrus casino -
club player casino -
cool cat casino -
cs casino -
fair deal sports -
fair poker -
fast win casino -
five card charlie -
gambling wages -
geisha lounge -
go casino -
golden reef casino -
golden riviera casino -
golden riviera poker -
good as gold casino -
grand aces -
grand banks casino -
grand riviera -
i play tournaments -
jackpots in a flash -
king solomons -
kiwi bingo -
kiwi bingo uk -
kiwi casino -
kiwi casino poker -
luck n roll casino -
magic box casino -
merlins magic casino -
miami paradise casino -
miss bingo -
mummys gold -
music hall casino -
nostalgia casinos -
omni casino -
online vegas -
only bingo -
palace of chance -
piggs casino -
piggs peak -
poker 333 -
poker metro -
poke round -
rich webmaster -
river nile casino -
roxy palace -
roxy poker -
ruby fortune -
sail away casino -
s casino -
sci fi casino -
slots alley casino -
slots royale -
spass kasino -
spin palace -
spin palace poker -
sterling house casino -
sun poker -
swiss casino -
the sands -
the sands of caribbean -
the six shooter -
the star casino -
tiki bingo -
top card casino -
triple win -
uk casino club -
vegas break casino -
vegas splendido -
vip casinos -
vip horses -
vip poker -
vip profits -
vip soccer -
vip sports -
wager junction -
wager profits -
wssb casino -
wssb sport -
action gold -
action poker -
affiliate lounge -
all jackpots -
all slots -
amber coast casino -
apues tas -
aus vegas -
bella vegas -
bet bet -
bet casino -
bet holdem -
bets son -
bet wwts -
big bettys bingo -
bingo 777 -
bingo bank roll -
bingo cafe -
bingo fantasy -
bingo for money -
bingo hall -
bingo liner -
bingo palace -
bingo program -
bingo reward -
bingos -
bingos uk -
bright right -
capital bingo -
cash wave -
casino domain -
casino euro -
casino lucky dog -
casino pay check -
casino webcam -
cherry casino -
city club casino -
cyber sportsbook -
diamond gal -
earn united -
el bingo -
first web casino -
fortune junction -
galactic bingo -
geisha bingo -
giant vegas -
gold betting -
grand bay -
grand bay poker -
grand casino royale -
hampton casino -
hotel casino network -
internet bingo -
jackpot factory -
jackpot joy -
jackpot wheel -
jet bingo -
juegos 65 -
jupiter club -
king neptunes casino -
lady dream -
lake palace -
mahjong time -
oasis casino -
oyna 65 -
paradise affiliates -
paradise poker -
play 65 -
players vegas -
play united -
poker -
poker cs -
poker in canada -
poker share -
portofino casino -
race track casino -
refer bingo -
refer spot -
revenue giants -
royal card club -
royal dice -
sandpiper casino -
shark casino -
sierra star casino -
slots village -
speed bet -
stars and stripes bingo -
tcads -
tiger gaming -
top line bingo -
trident lounge -
trident poker -
ultimate bet -
vegas experts -
vegas usa -
vics bingo -
wild jack casino -
wild jack mobile -
wild jack poker -
winward casino -
all jackpots -
all slots -
all star affiliates -
aus vegas -
bella vegas -
bet 19 -
bet bet -
bet casino -
bet euro -
bet game day -
bet holdem -
bet on games -
bet on races -
bet wwts -
big bettys bingo -
bingo 777 -
bingo fantasy -
bingo hall -
black pool casino -
break away casino -
bright right -
cash wave -
casino lucky dog -
casino pay check -
casino verano -
casino webcam -
city club casino -
cyber sportsbook -
diamond gal -
earn united -
fair deal sports -
fast win casino -
first web casino -
five card charlie -
fortune junction -
go casino -
gold betting -
good as gold casino -
grand bay -
grand bay poker -
grand casino royale -
grand riviera -
hotel casino network -
jackpot factory -
jackpot joy -
jackpots in a flash -
jackpot wheel -
jupiter club -
king neptunes casino -
kiwi bingo -
kiwi bingo uk -
kiwi casino -
kiwi casino poker -
lady dream -
lake palace -
mahjong time -
merlins magic casino -
only bingo -
piggs casino -
piggs peak -
players vegas -
play united -
poker share -
race track casino -
refer spot -
revenue giants -
roxy palace -
roxy poker -
ruby fortune -
sail away casino -
sandpiper casino -
sci fi casino -
shark casino -
spin palace -
spin palace poker -
the six shooter -
the star casino -
tiki bingo -
top card casino -
topline bingo -
trident lounge -
trident poker -
triple win -
ultimate bet -
vegas break casino -
vegas experts -
vegas splendido -
vegas usa -
vip casinos -
vip horses -
vip poker -
vip profits -
vip soccer -
vip sports -
wager profits -
wild jack casino -
wild jack mobile -
wild jack poker -
wssb casino -
wssb sport -
24h poker -
24kt gold casino -
400 affiliates -
9 am -
9 games -
9 poker -
absolute poker -
acf webmaster -
acropolis casinos -
aspinalls online casino -
atlantic lounge -
aztec riches casino -
bet 365 -
bet 365 poker -
bet com -
bet fred -
bet max casino -
bet on usa -
bingo cabin -
bingo promoter -
bingo royalty -
blackjack ballroom -
canadas best bingo -
casino 365 -
casino 770 -
casino blasters -
casino partouche -
casino rewards -
casino room -
celeb poker -
cindys poker -
club euro casino -
club uk casino -
club usa casino -
cocoa casino -
crystal palace casino -
da vincis gold -
diamond deal casino -
ecard room -
euro poker -
festive bingo -
flamingo club -
gaming income -
giga slot -
global player -
golden palace -
golden palace bingo -
golden palace mobile -
golden palace poker -
gold nugget casino -
gran casino espana -
grand online -
holdem poker -
i net bet -
inter champs -
island poker -
jackpot palace -
ladies bingo -
las seters -
las vegas usa casino -
metro casino -
my bookie -
nine -
nine games -
nine poker -
online casino -
pacific poker -
paradise 8 -
paradise eight -
pharaohs casino -
phoenician casino -
play and deal -
players club casino -
poker affiliate -
poker room -
pure slots -
purple lounge -
pyramid casino -
rock my wallet -
sia casino -
slot fever casino -
slot land -
slots -
slots 24 -
slots cr -
slots plus -
sun palace casino -
sunset casino -
this is vegas -
touch stone poker -
true earnings -
twin aces casino -
vc casino -
vc poker -
vegas casino online -
vegas lucky -
vegas magic -
victor -
victor chandler casino -
video poker classic -
9 am -
9 games -
9 poker -
acf webmaster -
action gold -
action poker -
affiliate lounge -
amber coast casino -
apues tas -
atlantic lounge -
bet 365 -
bet 365 poker -
bet com -
bet max casino -
bet on usa -
bets son -
bingo bank roll -
bingo cabin -
bingo cafe -
bingo for money -
bingo liner -
bingo palace uk -
bingo program -
bingo reward -
bingo royalty -
bingos -
bingos uk -
canadas best bingo -
capital bingo -
casino 365 -
casino 770 -
casino domain -
casino euro -
casino partouche -
casino room -
cherry casino -
cindys poker -
crystal palace casino -
diamond deal casino -
ecard room -
el bingo -
euro poker -
festive bingo -
galactic bingo -
gaming income -
geisha bingo -
giant vegas -
giga slot -
gran casino espana -
hampton casino -
holdem poker -
i net bet -
inter champs -
internet bingo -
jet bingo -
juegos 65 -
las vegas usa casino -
my bookie -
nine -
nine am -
nine games -
nine poker -
oasis casino -
oyna 65 -
paradise affiliates -
paradise poker -
play 65 -
play and deal -
poker -
poker affiliate -
poker cs -
poker in canada -
poker room -
portofino casino -
pure slots -
purple lounge -
pyramid casino -
refer bingo -
rock my wallet -
royal card club -
royal dice -
sia casino -
sierra star casino -
slot fever casino -
slot land -
slot scr -
slots village -
speed bet -
stars and stripes bingo -
sun palace casino -
tcads -
tiger gaming -
touch stone poker -
true earnings -
twin aces casino -
vegas casino online -
vegas magic -
vics bingo -
video poker classic -
winward casino -
24kt gold casino -
400 affiliates -
7 sultans -
7 sultans poker -
absolute poker -
aces high -
acropolis casinos -
aspinalls online casino -
aztec riches casino -
aztec riches poker -
bet fred -
bingo promoter -
blackjack ballroom -
captain cooks casino -
captain cooks poker -