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  Second, what economists call  "opportunity costs".  And you've made a big  point this morning of  talking about  how much  the way in which we  value things  depends on what we  compare them to. Well, when there are lots of alternatives to consider, it's easy to imagine the attractive features of alternatives that you reject that make you less satisfied with the alternative that you've chosen. Here's an example. I can't stop thinking about those other available parking spaces on West 85th Street  If you're not a New Yorker, I apologize.  Here's what you're supposed to be thinking.  Here's this couple on the Hamptons. Very expensive real estate.  Gorgeous beach. Beautiful day. They have it all to themselves.  What could be better?  " Damn it, " this guy is thinking,  " It's August, Everybody in my Manhattan neighborhood is away.  I could be parking right in front of my building. "  And he sp...

  Do you remember what he does right at the end of his speech?   just before he collapses, sort of collapses..  Anybody remember that part of his speech? That's the part I'm gonna read, so I don't want you to remember because you inherit in my version.    Here's where it starts., marmaladov  wanted to refill his glass but there was nothing left in the bottle, the bottle was empty.    Why should anyone feel sorry for you?  demanded The Tavern keeper who turned up next to them  Once again then there was a burst of laughter and even some cursing.  The listeners laughed and cursed.   And even those who weren't listening joined in, simply looking at the sorry sight of the former civil servant.    Sorry.....? why feel sorry for me? marmalad cried suddenly standing up his arms outstretched. Now genuinely inspired as if he'd been waiting for those words.  Why feel sorry for me you ask. No......

  After I graduated law school, my first job was with this great organization in New York City called The Center for Family Representation . And what CFR does is - it's about half attorneys and half social workers , and we were court-appointed to parents and child abuse and child neglect cases in Manhattan and Queens. Basically, if social services in New York was considering intervening in a family, supervising in the family, maybe removing the child and placing the child in foster care. We were people appointed to help them make the arguments that they should keep their child in their home, o r that they've done enough to have the child returned back to their home.  And as you can imagine, people don't end up in this type of situation or in family court in general for really sunny or rosy reasons. You know, unfortunately, the majority of my clients were dealing with things like substance abuse and drug addiction and alcohol, mental health, poverty, domestic violence, and ...

  I'm usually gonna to try to do an outline of what we're covering. So we've talked about course details, what is micro? Now let's talk about how we do that. What economics does? which is we use models. And I'll talk about a model of Supply and Demand. How do we actually teach you all about these trade-offs . The way we do it is by building simplified  models.  A Model is technically the  description of any  relationship between two  or more variables.  But unlike explaining  relation between energy and mass  we do not have scientific laws  and constants in our universe.  Ok? Economics is as much as  we hate to say it, not  a real science.  It is a social science.  Which means that basically we don't have rigid laws that we can write down say they're all. They're everywhere applicable.  We have to use models to  basically try to explain  the world as much as we  can.  And so in doing so,...

  Three points about my teaching style. First of all, I don't write everything on the board. For the freshmen here, we're not in high school anymore. You need to pay attention and listen to what I say, not just what I write. So it's important to remember that.  The second point is, as you can tell, I talk really fast and my handwriting is really bad. So please don't be afraid to ask "what the hell" I just said or wrote. If you don't know, chances are at least 40% of the class doesn't know either.  We'll learn later this semester about the concept of public good. A public good is something you do which has a personal cost and a social benefit. I understand raising your hand in a class as large as this can be intimidating. But remember, in doing so, you're not just helping yourself, you're helping your fellow classmates. So please don't lean and whisper loudly, what the hell did he just say, to the person next to you. Raise your hand an...

  Last time, we talked about further out indifference curves make you happier.  Today, we talked about the fact that you're  limited by your budget. So we have the furthest indifference curve you can get to is gonna be, definitionally, at the tangent of the indifference curve   and the budget constraint .  And, once again, that gives you -- we realize we don't want to measure utils, but, just  for mathematical, for mathematical purpose, that gives utility at the tangency of square root of 18.  At that point, you are choosing six cookies and three pizzas.  That is the best off you can get given your budget.  And, to see this, let's talk about some other points. Why isn't point A better?  Why isn't it better to have two maybe  you just-- maybe you like cookies a lot and don't like-- or like pizza a lot and don't like cookies that much.  How can we say that point D is better than point A?  AUDIENCE: Because point D ...

  I remember my first se*ual experience. My father loved to fish and my mother collected a lot of driftwood for her flower arrangements. And we went up to Cape Cod and it was in the autumn. And we were playing on the beach way2 up the beach. And I was about 5 years old.  And my father who  was a very good tennis  player gave me a tennis ball  and he put his big watch  on my wrist.  And he said "You girls go up around that huge sand escarpment and don't come back, and don't look back until this hand is here and that hand is there" So off we shuffled up the beach. We followed the instructions and we came back when we were told to. And my mother was entirely different. She's generally a bit of a battle. And she was right next to my father, they were both sitting on this tiny little towel and she was so charming. And I looked down to her and I said "Something's going on here".  I don't know what it is  but I know it's good for  me.  And...