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132 sats \ 4 replies \ @SimpleStacker 5 Dec \ parent \ on: Music Has No Economic Value; Convince Me Otherwise (TDE, Joakim Book) BooksAndArticles
lol, are you referring to the 40 year old basketball player with a negative salary for playing ball? that's me as well
i know the article is meant to be fun and tongue in cheek, but I'd say the author is confusing consumption with production
The 40 year old basketball player paying for a YMCA gym membership is consuming basketball, he's not producing basketball for others' entertainment. Just like most songs on Spotify are actually consumption value for the musicians, they're just putting it on Spotify on the off chance that someone out there likes it and is willing to pay a bit for it (indirectly through Spotify)
It isn't much different from Stacker.News, honestly. Here we're mainly posting for fun (consumption value), but we sometimes get tipped (production of value for others)
mmmm, not sure there's a meaningful distinction between consumption and production when the price hits (=goes below) 0.
That's Munger's point with the basketball players: production of basketball playing is actually consumption of it, since the non-elite guys are paying for the privilege to play. Similarly, musicians are paying for the privilege to play/make music, so what they're creating is consumption and not production.
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Right but I wouldn't say it's of zero economic value. I think when people play music or sports, they're acting as both the consumer and the producer, and the analysis of economic surplus can proceed as usual. They produce and consume up to a quantity of music/sports until their private marginal benefit equals their private marginal cost. The total surplus is the integral over the marginal benefits minus the marginal costs.
The difference between an amateur and a professional is that the professional's playing adds marginal benefit not just to themselves, but also to others who watch/listen. They are then compensated in the market for that production.
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That's an interesting point, but aren't you and I producing basketball for the other old guys at the gym to consume, as well as consuming it ourselves?
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Perhaps there is no market for the good you are contemplating. You can be both a consumer and a producer of a good. A dairy farmer produces milk as well as drink it.
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