海角大神

I鈥檝e said before that being a father has made me a better person and a better economist. Over the summer, it taught me (in a very vivid way) that value is subjective.

My three-year-old son loves his stuffed panda, Gerard. Gerard was a gift from a friend; I didn鈥檛 realize how much Gerard had cost, but it turns out that to get another, identical stuffed panda would cost us $36(!!). Over the summer, we were driving from Memphis to Great Barrington, Massachusetts where I would be spending a few weeks as a Visiting Research Fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. We made a few stops along the way, including a stop at a McDonald鈥檚 in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where I wrote this post. We stopped for the night in Hagerstown, Maryland. As we were getting everything ready, we made an important (and horrifying) discovery.

Gerard was missing.

And so it turned out that, as we were leaving the McDonald鈥檚 in Harrisonburg, I had apparently placed Gerard on top of the car so I could buckle Jacob into his car seat. I had forgotten about Gerard as we sped off for Maryland.

With Google, it wasn鈥檛 too difficult to find phone numbers for all the McDonald鈥檚 locations in Harrisonburg, Virginia. Miraculously, someone who worked at the McDonald鈥檚 we had patronized had found Gerard in the parking lot.

It was decision time. Gerard was safe, but he was about a 90-minute drive away. At $0.50 cents/mile for gas and depreciation, going to get Gerard would probably cost about $100 round trip, to say nothing of the inconvenience of driving when I would rather be sleeping, all else equal.

As all else was most definitely not equal, the decision was obvious: I hopped in the car, made the trip, and retrieved Gerard. According to a very narrow calculation, we could have gotten a very close substitute for Gerard for $36 plus shipping. As anyone with kids knows, though, it wouldn鈥檛 have really been Gerard鈥揳nd I wasn鈥檛 about to lie to Jacob and say that it was. Suffice it to say Jacob was very happy to be reunited with the genuine article. So what is Gerard really 鈥渨orth?鈥� The calculation would certainly be different in a lifeboat situation, but on a normal day I wouldn鈥檛 sell him to you for $10,000.

And now, the lesson in productivity: I thought 鈥渉ey, I have a few minutes and a bit of inspiration; I鈥檒l write a blog post!鈥� I did, but if I hadn鈥檛, I probably would have been more focused on what I was doing and saved myself the cost of going to get Gerard. I wouldn鈥檛 have this story or the lesson, of course, but I do wish that hadn鈥檛 happened.

Obligatory Disclosure: I鈥檝e received no valuable consideration from McDonald鈥檚, Google, the manufacturers of stuffed pandas like Gerard, or AIER in exchange for mentioning them in this post.