Comments on: Sociology refutes Economics (again)

By: Maurice

Maurice — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 19:18:55 +0000

That was my 20$ bill!

Please return it.

By: Tom Parmenter

Tom Parmenter — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:33:22 +0000

Or South Ossetians.

By: ajay

ajay — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 14:45:08 +0000

I told her people from south Georgia always look at the ground when they walk.

They’re probably worried about the penguins.

By: Harry

Harry — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 00:31:40 +0000

I found a wallet with $500 in it in bills. The owner is a local media celebrity. I called his office, but he was out boating on the lake, so they said he’d call back. He did, eventually. He hadn’t noticed it was gone, so was not grateful. He picked it up from me an hour later. 2 days later he dropped off a box of chocolates that tasted like soap. A day after that I read that he’s a major contributor to local Republican candidates. I felt stupid.

By: mike shupp

mike shupp — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:01:20 +0000

abb1 –
I’ve forgotten, to be honest, but it had a Dewey library classification of something like 301.18 or maybe 013.78. Nonfiction, not new, and not on the most busy floor of the library. I think the relevant description was “second basement, hallway to the left all the way down, first book on the second shelf at the end.”—that’s what I’d be looking for if I were a corrupt councilman…

By: Dave

Dave — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:41:56 +0000

Atlas Shrugged, obviously.

Not.

By: abb1

abb1 — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:49:24 +0000

56, could you at least tell what book it was? Please.

By: mike shupp

mike shupp — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:55:30 +0000

Hey, I once found 12 $100 bills in a library book. Took it up to the desk and by sheer chance a city cop was there, who took it into custody. The cops ran an ad in the local paper (“Cash found; rightful owner describe circumstances”) for three weeks than turned the money over to me when it went unclaimed.

True story. What the f**k was going on, I asked a detective when I collected. Probably a payoff to a city councilman, he answered. And grinned. I’ll leave the date and location out of this to protect the not-quite-proven-innocent, but it wasn’t a place famous for civic corruption…..

By: Walt

Walt — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 04:16:00 +0000

Your last comment is pretty funny, Jeff.

By: Jeff Rubard

Jeff Rubard — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 03:12:41 +0000

Why think there’s any other possible reason you’re finding the money? Well, you know, there really is such a thing as society: it’s little Billy, and Mrs. Jenkins, and the Saturn dealership, and the crackhouse down the street, and all the people doing “incision play”, and all the people carrying concealed weapons.

By: Jeff Rubard

Jeff Rubard — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 02:42:56 +0000

I guess what I said was a little portentous. Of course there’s a “reasonable” explanation for why the money’s on the ground, but you weren’t there when it landed on the ground and so by definition you really can’t know what’s up. But on the other hand, really knowing is sometimes a rather cold comfort, especially when dealing with economic America: “we never sold that product”, “nobody by that name ever worked here”, “we don’t honor coupons on which it is written ‘valid all day’ at lunch”, etc.

By: Tom Parmenter

Tom Parmenter — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 23:33:00 +0000

Dog my cats, those -phagy jokes sure do appeal to my primitive sense of humor. Bring on the kudzu and the snake chunkers.

BTW, the correct, Menckenian term, is clay eater from the pellegra belt.

By: eck

eck — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 16:02:22 +0000

people from south Georgia always look at the ground when they walk In a word: geophagy.

By: Rich B.

Rich B. — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:45:35 +0000

Last month I found a wallet with over $200 in it sitting on top of the ATM I was using. Checking the driver’s license and seeing that the address was only a few blocks away, I drove it over and returned the wallet to the owner.

He thanked me, but them proceeded to grumble at length that he had canceled all of his credit cards already. Made me wish I had kept a few of the twenties for my troubles.

By: Will Davies

Will Davies — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:29:34 +0000

Don’t see why that is at all problematic for economists: someone must have simply priced the effort of looking after their money properly at more than $20.

Now this incident on the other hand…