Tango Microeconomics

Man Yung came across this in one of the books he was reading and made me go and find it on the internet. I found it here at http://netec.mcc.ac.uk/JokEc.html

Experienced economist and not so experienced economist are walking down the road. They get across shit lying on the asphalt. Experienced economist: "If you eat it I'll give you $20,000!" Not so experienced economist runs his optimization problem and figures out he's better off eating it so he does and collects money. Continuing along the same road they almost step into yet another shit. Not so experienced economist: "Now, if YOU eat this shit I'll give YOU $20,000." After evaluating the proposal experienced economist eats shit getting the money. They go on. Not so experienced economist starts thinking: "Listen, we both have the same amount of money we had before, but we both ate shit. I don't see us being better off." Experienced economist: "Well, that's true, but you overlooked the fact that we've been just involved in $40,000 of trade."

Man Yung has been watching "Numb3rs" recently and this intriguing economics problem set his mind in motion with regards to its "real life application" to the field of "Tango Microeconomics". For example:

Tango Dancer A reads the ads for the latest visiting "Fabio" workshop ("The Best Tango Classes You will EVER have!", they proudly proclaim), decides to attend and spends X amount of dollars for a zillion group and private classes with the said "Fabio". Tango Dancer A then goes to the local milonga and proceeds to alarm and assault everyone around him with the large and awesome moves (and overwhelming aura of superiority, after all, he learned from the great "Fabio" himself!) he paid good money for in this tango opportunity of a lifetime.

Tango Dancer B sees and envies the fabulousness that is the newly re-minted Tango Dancer A, so Tango Dancer B waits for the next visiting "Fabio" to give workshops ("The Best Tango Classes etc., etc. X TWO!!") in his area. Tango Dancer B spends X amount of dollars for a zillion group and private classes with "Fabio 2". Tango Dancer B then goes to the local milonga, and proceeds to alarm and assault everyone around him (including Tango Dancer A) with his large and awesome moves, etc. etc.

So how does the local Gringo Tango Community benefit from all of this? Let's see... a couple of bruised shins from all those the flying linear boleo combinations, a fist-fight almost breaks out for the entertainment of all the tango folks, and the teacher to student ratio progresses closer to parity in the Community (i.e. somewhat like the Canadian to U.S. dollar exchange rate) as Tango Dancer A and Tango Dancer B both decide to teach as they are now qualified to enlighten everyone around them with their newly gained astounding tango wisdom.

So, at the end of this story, did the level of dancing go up, or did it actually go down?

We can't really answer that question, but we can definitely conclude the following:

1) Consumption of excrement in 2008 went up.
2) The "Fabios" are laughing all the way to the Bank!