Wagner's Opera

Wagner's opera is really a lot better than it sounds. -- Mark Twain?

Cost-Benefit

Economists often believe that they have the answers when it comes to trade offs between what things cost and the benefits derived therefrom. Well, Mr. Adam Smith, please explain the following head-scratchiers when it comes to such cost-benefit analyses that some people make:

- A Jackson Pollack "dribble" painting

- A Malibu monster beach house

- Tickets in the nose-bleed section of a December Minnesota Vikings home game

- Shares of Tesla stock

- A pre-paid future ride on a Richard Branson or Elon Musk "spaceship"

- A $100 per shot drink of 40-year-old single-malt Scotch whisky

- An Apple-Watch

- A Honus Wagner baseball card

- A cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin

- An Aston-Martin One ($1.4M)

- A luxury condo in Hong Kong

Purloined Powerline

The Powerline blog (see: Powerline) ran an entry this week on "things I don't care about" which idea I found so compelling I have decided to "borrow" it.  (I've also borrowed their above graphic.)  So here are the things that cause me to switch channels, turn off the radio, or start daydreaming about a zesty Bloody Mary:

- The Miss America contest
- The very latest Apple Inc. Iphone®
- Saltine® crackers
- Time magazine (or Newsweek, etc.)
- Sting (or Bono or Paul McCartney, etc.)
- Doonesbury (I borrowed this one from Powerline too)
- James Sokolove TV ads
- Thomas Friedman's solutions to the world's problems
- Robo telephone calls (no matter from whom)
- The Emmy's
- Falling-to-earth space junk
- Pasteurized apple cider
- Chrysler® cars
- Debby Wasserman Schultz
- Anyone living on the fictional Wisteria Lane
- Pizza from nationally-franchised companies
- Wagnerian operas
- Lists of things people don't care about (just kidding)