Postrel on Style

by Russ Roberts on November 27, 2006

Most things in the world around us get cheaper and better. Competition forces businesses that want to stay in business to improve the products we buy from them. Cheaper and better is the mantra for a business that wants to stay around. But as Virginia Postrel points out in this podcast, the right mantra is cheaper, better and prettier. We talk about the elegance of the modern toilet brush, how hotels use their beds and linens to compete for customers and at the end of our conversation, we turn to Virginia’s incredible gift of a kidney to Sally Satel.

Here is Sally Satel’s essay on the market for organs.

Here is Richard Epstein’s podcast on the market for organs.

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Brad

I'm listening to Virginia Postrel talk about educating people about how organ transplant works. She makes the point that people are just uninformed and have misconceptions. Start with the popular TV show "Nip/Tuck". A recurring theme this season is that the new manager of the practice is involved in a kidney theft ring. Clearly, it's not making any kind of political statement... It's Nip/Tuck, not M*A*S*H. But it's playing to "common sense" which isn't terribly sensible in this case.