No Free Lunch: Economics for a Fallen World: Third Edition, Revised

Chapter Nine: P31W: Enter the Entrepreneur! 203 available!). In the perfect information world that supply and demand analyzes, all the difficulties of dating would be gone—he would know whether she would say yes, he and she would understand what all other available options are and are not, and everybody would all settle each weekend’s dates at the same time. The market would always clear, and no one would ever stay home alone on a Friday night (assuming they wanted a date). We would have an equilibrium price and quantity of dates that would be fixed in advance of any dating activity. There would be no strategies necessary—no built up hopes that are dashed, or any unrealized opportunities neglected. Unfortunately, the real dating game is nothing of that sort. The real world is filled with uncertainty and passes through real time. Do I want to go out with Jermaine or Colleen? Should I hold out for Liam or Ava (and risk having no date)? Or should I accept a more certain opportunity, but one with less potential reward? Not only do I face uncertainty with other potential partners’ choices, the process works through real time. What might be a good choice on Tuesday may become a terrible choice by Thursday; but by Saturday night, it could become the most awesome night ever! Or if she says a hurtful word in response to your request, you may never look at her the same way again. You learn, and as you learn, you change. The process of learning is continual; we constantly learn as time progresses. We grow… and so does everyone else. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus once said, “You can never step into the same river; for new waters are always flowing on to you.” While you may think you are the same person, as time progresses you change. In some cases you are becoming more godly, with more wisdom and increasingly crucified flesh. In other ways, perhaps a sin pattern that you thought wasn’t a problem becomes a consuming reality and crushes you as God forces you to deal with this area of your life. However the process goes, you change. God loves us too much to let us stay the way we are. As time progresses, we not only learn more about the nature of both man and God, but we also learn about other people and their actions and plans. In the market process, many of the variables we take as a starting point for equilibrium analysis (prices, costs, preferences) are determined only as the result of that process. We often don’t know what the prices are, and we don’t know how much an item will cost. The economic model we’ve been using assumes preferences are given and never need to be created, but that’s not necessarily true. We have incomplete information, and the lack of information is more than that we just need more time to search it out. In many cases the information we need may not be known, but will be created as the market process unfolds. For example, we may decide to undertake a In the market process, many of the variables we take as a starting point for equilibrium analysis (prices, costs, preferences) are determined only as the result of that process.