Customer Reviews

Economic Naturalist

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Two hundred pages of the book are entirely composed by the questions posed by the author's students, and the answers, which mostly come up with distinctive and often interesting views about mundane matters. Whether it be shopping in department store, a hotel reservation, settling the dinner bill or rent-a-car, a reader is bound to realize that the decisions he takes on many of those occasions, at the end are not utterly his own. The author even invites us to weigh up the prices of certain goods and services, explaining, for instance, why a black Apple laptop computer is more expensive than identically configured white one (p.83) or why do taxicab fares have both a fixed and a variable component.

At the same time the word "almost" in the title of the book, properly reflects its essence, because it is an interesting read not only for sensitive buyers, but also for more inquisitive minds. The author comes up with the explanations as to why, for example, women's clothes always button from the left, while men's clothes always from the right, and at the end even speculates, that an average men's life would be more stressful if polygamy was allowed. Although, the answers almost inevitably dance around the law of supply and demand, the economics ideas you will encounter appear only in the context of examples drawn from familiar experiences.

Some factological errors (it is mentioned, for example, that dissolution of former Soviet Union happened in 1989) are compensated by a healthy sense of humor. Definitely, the book for everyone, who wishes to trigger off the autopilot from his daily routine.

Want economic answers? You're looking at it. You'll find amusing and amazing answers all in here. Highly recommended to anyone who is interested in everything surrounding.