The relativity of values causes us to use money irrationally. I go to the supermarket to buy a $15 pen, and the clerk smiles and says, “You can buy this pen for $7 if you walk 5 minutes from here.” Then, most people walk five minutes and buy a $15 pen for $7. But if you want to buy a $1,000 jacket and the clerk smiles and says, “You can get a $992 jacket in five minutes from here,” most people simply buy the $1,000 jacket. Reasonably, walking for 5 minutes equals the effort, and the profit of $8 is the same. However, people might go to a store that sells pens cheaper, but not for the jacket, because the discount rate is too low. In other words, the relativity of comparing values makes us act irrationally. The pen’s discount rate is 55%, and the jacket’s is only 0.8%. Yet, the total amount is the same for all $8, and the effort to gain that profit is identical. Attitudes and misconceptions about consumption influence how we build wealth. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
In 2002, Nobel Prize-winning economist Daniel Kahneman conducted an experiment called the “Dictator Game”. It was 1986. One of the two subjects was given $20 to share with the other. The first condition was that the recipient could exercise his veto power if he did not like the distribution ratio, and then, the ruler ensured that the giver did not have the money. The second condition eliminated the veto. In the first condition, most people who gave money were divided in half. In the second condition, however, the giver had about 70% and shared only 30%. Most people think of fairness to vested interests between 50% and 70%. But, in some cases, even though the recipient had a veto, the giver had 90% and wanted to share only 10%. At that time, it was beneficial for the recipient to receive at least 10%, but by exercising the veto power, the giver did not have the money either. This is the moment of conflict between justice and rationality. People do not make decisions based on reason alon...