海角大神

Among my idiosyncracies are two footwear anti-fetishes: I hate flip flops and high heels. I have never mastered the dark art of walking in flip flops, and I have always been troubled聽when women teeter at the edge of falling because of聽shoes聽designed for fashion (allegedly) rather than function.

Nonetheless, I enjoyed Thursday鈥檚 Wall Street Journal聽piece about the engineering, some would say聽architecture, of .聽I was also聽pleased that columnist聽Christina Binkley聽emphasized some of the negatives early in her piece:

High heels can exact a heavy toll on the body, pushing weight forward onto the ball of the foot and toes and stressing the back and legs. Most doctors recommend a maximum height of 2 inches.

But with heels, many women trade comfort for style. Women spent $38.5 billion on shoes in the U.S. last year, according to NPD Group, and more than half of those sales were for heels over 3 inches high. High heels are seen as sexy and powerful. Stars on the red carpet clamor for the highest heels possible鈥搇eading designers who want their shoes photographed into an arms race for height.

That 鈥渁rms race鈥� comment got me to thinking. Perhaps there鈥檚 an externality here? Are women trying to be taller than other women? If Betty has 2 inch heels, does that mean聽Veronica聽wants 2 and a half inch heels? And that Betty will then want 3 inch heels? If so,聽high heels are an example of the kind of pointless competition that Robert Frank highlights in his recent book, 鈥溾��. As noted in the book description:

[Such] competition often leads to 鈥渁rms races,鈥� encouraging behaviors that not only cause enormous harm to the group but also provide no lasting advantages for individuals, since any gains tend to be relative and mutually offsetting. The good news is that we have the ability to tame the Darwin economy. The best solution is not to prohibit harmful behaviors but to tax them. By doing so, we could make the economic pie larger, eliminate government debt, and provide better public services, all without requiring painful sacrifices from anyone.

Hence today鈥檚 question: Are high heels an example of聽such misguided competition? If so, should we tax them? (Bonus question: Should we tax noisy flip flops?)

P.S. The book description is not correct about the absence of 鈥減ainful sacrifice.鈥� Someone聽out there will still purchase聽such goods (otherwise there would be no revenue to聽鈥漞liminate government debt鈥�), and there鈥檚 a good chance they will view聽their tax payments as a sacrifice.