Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Economics of Gold-Digging

In response to an upfront marriage proposal from an attractive women, a rich man responded:
Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple a crappy business deal. Here’s why. Cutting through all the B.S., what you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party, and I bring my money. Fine, simple. But here’s the rub — your looks will fade and my money will likely continue into perpetuity … in fact, it is very likely that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won’t be getting any more beautiful!
But don't worry, they might get together after all:
So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a buy and hold … hence the rub … marriage. It doesn’t make good business sense to “buy you” (which is what you’re asking) so I’d rather lease. In case you think I’m being cruel, I would say the following: if my money were to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out. It’s as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.
There seems to be no end to the things economics can ruin!

1 comment:

  1. Haha, I've heard that before. Good point though, econ ruins everything...

    ReplyDelete

You are the reason why I do not write privately. I would love to hear your thoughts, whether you agree or not.