Richard Thaler won the 2017 Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in Behavioral Economics.  He’s really an interesting guy and I’ve read some interviews he’s given, quite fun!  His thoughts and work on how psychology impacts people and their behavior toward money and how that drives the economy differently than economic models for rationally behaving people is very cool.  He is quoted as saying, “conventional economics assumes that people are highly-rational—super-rational—and unemotional. They can calculate like a computer and have no self–control problems.”  … I guess we know that’s not quite true.  After all we still get duped by sale advertisements, and how many of us will spend $3 on a bottled water when there is a perfectly good free cup of water also available…  well here’s my take on how we behave toward money…

 

What is That Dollar Worth?

 

If you see a dollar lying on the ground

Would you be happy about what you found

 

Would you set that dollar once again free

On something shinny and new that you see

 

Is it worth less than the one you’ve earned

And if so what have you really learned

 

The dollar knows no difference from its brother

It’s you that have assigned character to the other

 

One dollar that is found is fun and furious

The dollar earned and saved seems so serious

 

What is that dollar worth to you

And do you like its brother equally too?