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Pastimes : Austrian Economics, a lens on everyday reality

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To: Don Lloyd who wrote (166)2/28/2003 11:18:28 PM
From: Wildstar  Read Replies (2) of 445
 
Don,

What made me ask you is that the scenario reminded me of an incident I was involved in. Back in my college days I was trying to sell all my furniture and had a yard sale. I was asking for $10 for a chair, which I thought was a bargain price. This customer, who was likely my last chance for a buyer, was interested in this chair but would not raise his bid above $5. I was angry and took offense that he would try to "swindle" me, and I refused his offer to exchange at $5. He left and in the end, I threw away the chair.

The Austrian economist would say that the end state of satisfaction is what is important, and that the satisfaction of getting a subjectively just exchange for the chair was more important to me than the material benefit of any sum of money at all - $5, in this case. In other words, I would be more satisfied in throwing the chair away rather than receiving $5 in exchange for it.

But, an outside observer who has no knowledge of Austrian economics would claim that we missed out on a mutually beneficial exchange. Even if this claim has nothing to do with Austrian economics, is there no use at all in studying this claim?

Wildstar
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