Chrisonomicon

Tuesday, October 9, 2001

Economic principles are everywhere and can be applied to a wide variety of situations in life.

For instance, I could be having sex tonight. As a matter of fact, I could be having sex every night if I wanted it. The marginal cost of doing so -- finding a suitable partner, verifying compatibility, driving and meeting somewhere, risking the contraction of diseases -- far outweighs the marginal benefit of the encounter, which would primarily be a short period of pleasure, ranging anywhere from fifteen minutes to a few hours.

The theory of supply and demand also plays a large part in my sex life. Currently, there is an abundance of undesirable sexual partners, and -- had they not been undesirable in the first place -- this surplus would decrease the demand. The demand is already low, but that is due to the high cost of engaging in sexual activity with such partners (emotional trauma, for instance). As we all know, high cost decreases demand and, inversely, increases supply.

The principles of present choice versus future possibility also hold true when considering the opportunity costs of having sex every night. If we consider my present choice of having sex every night, I must give up the time and energy I could otherwise put forth to improving myself physically and mentally or searching for a more ideal partner. Instead, if I chose to forgo immediate sexual gratification and focus, instead, on building my capital goods (self-esteem, appearance, and pick-up lines), I stand to gain, sexually, in the long term.

Further still, economic systems display themselves in abundance when discussing my sex life. A purely capitalistic encounter (a.k.a. "the one night stand"), assumes that each participant acts in his own self-interest and each seeks to maximize his own satisfaction or profit. The system allows for the private ownership of capital (each has his own life, outside of the relationship), communicates through cost, and coordinates activity through markets (or Internet chat rooms).

Sometimes, my sex life looks like a command economy (commonly referred to as a "LTR"), where there is public ownership of virtually all property resources and sexual decision making through central planning. Most of my relationships and encounters are a combination of the two "economies" and are known as mixed systems.

But I suppose it all comes down to the central problem of both sex and economics, which states that our wants are insatiable and our resources are forever scarce. Because classic economics deals with doing the best with what we have, most of us who model our sexual relationships on this idea end up in trailer parks with drunken boyfriends. I'm considering a production possibility curve that focuses on capital improvement for future benefits.

That is why I'm not having sex tonight. Economically speaking.