THE ECONOMIC NATURALIST
Source: http://www.speakup.com.br
Language level: A2 PRE-INTERMEDIATE
Standard: British and American accent
Speaker: Rachel Robert and Chuck Rolando
BY JOHN RIGG
Economics professor Robert H. Frank of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York wanted to demonstrate the practical uses of economics, so he asked his students to discover and explain strange contradictions in modern life.
Their answers were so impressive he decided to publish them in his book The Economic Naturalist: Why Economics Explains Almost Everything. Let’s look at some examples:
WEDDING BELLS
Student Jennifer Dulski asked why brides spend so much money on a wedding dress that they only wear once, a while grooms usually rent their suits. Dulski says each bride wants a unique dress and so a hire company would need at least 40 alternatives in each size, whereas men accept at standard style and the hire company can regularly rent out the same two or three suits in each size.
Dulski says this results in a low fee for grooms suits, but very high fees for brides dresses.
DRINKS?
Another student asked why soft drinks, like Coca Cola, are sold in cylindrical cans or bottles, while milk is usually sold in square cartoons.
The student had two answers. First, we often drink soft drinks directly from the container, and cylindrical containers are easier to hold, on the other hand, we rarely drink milk from the cartoon. Second, soft drinks sit happily on ordinary shelves, but milk needs expensive refrigerated storage.
Milk therefore comes in square containers as they need less storage space.
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