The Last Performance

My

dear

Matthew, Trade

always

results

in

an

increase

in

total

well-being.

If

you

have

x

and

I

have

y

and

we

voluntarily

trade

some

x

for

y

our

total

well-being

must

increase.

After

all

I

won't

give

up

some

x

unless

I

value

it

less

than

the

y

I

get

and

you

won't

give

up

y

unless

you

value

it

less

than

the

x

you

get.

However

this

aggregate

formulation

hides

rather

than

reveals

truth.

Even

though

overall

well-being

increases,

parts

of

me

and

parts

of

you

are

very

likely

to

be

worse

off

than

before.

For

example

suppose

we

initially

each

grew

tomatoes

in

our

gardens

and

wrote

on

economics

(to

each

other).

At

some

point

I

tire

of

economics

writing

and

offer

to

grow

extra

tomatoes

which

I

can

sell

to

you

in

return

for

writings

on

economics.

I

now

grow

tomatoes

and

you

write

economics

letters

and

we

trade

some

of

those.

There

is

no

doubt

that

we

will

each

be

far

more

productive

as

exclusive

tomato

grower

and

economics

writer.

In

other

words

overall

well-being

will

undoubtedly

increase.

However

my

economics-writing

side

will

wither

and

so

will

your

tomato-growing

side.

We

will

each

be

a

shadow

of

our

selves,

producing,

producing,

producing

but

shrivelling

inside. Is

it

hard

to

understand

how

a

country

specializing

as

classical

economics

would

have

it

do

would

shrink

and

wither

even

as

its

gross

domestic

product

expanded?

=> Construct a last

Exhibition: The Last Performance [dot org] @ Haus Der Kulturen Der Welt