I just went to the supermarket to buy a steak. In the parking lot I spotted – literally – a $20 bill laying on the ground. I picked it up. No one else was nearby who appeared to be a likely true owner, so I also pocketed this booty.
Freshwater economists pay heed: markets are not perfect; unclaimed $20 bills are indeed sometimes found just laying around. Saltwater economists pay heed: $20 bills available for the taking do not long lay around before being fully exploited for all they are worth; such easily appropriated riches are relatively rare, and reports of the existence of any specific ones are generally to be dismissed as fanciful. (It is, after all, noteworthy that I found today a $20 bill laying on the ground. I’m 56 years old and have never before, to my recollection, encountered any such lucrative booty just laying there for the taking.) I propose that Austrian economists have the most realistic understanding of reality! 🙂
(The title of this post is inspired by a comment on a Facebook thread by J.D. Montgomery.)
