The High Price of Fresh Veggies

Here’s an interesting question: Why do veggies cost more than meat?

I like this question. After all, it takes a lot fewer resources to grow onions than to raise cattle. Among other things:

2. Quality matters a lot. Meat is often of pretty poor quality (think McDonalds), and people seem fine with that. Low quality vegetables turns everyone off.

3. Meat can be stored for longer periods of time, making it easier to ship and optimize distribution.

The delivery, storage, and quality issues don’t end at the point of purchase either. Vegetables in any significant quantity (we’re not talking about the pickles on your hamburger) are only available at limited locations relative to meat. The cost of getting to a supermarket, farmer’s market, or veggie-friendly restaurant can be greater than the cost of getting to Taco Bell. If you manage to get to the supermarket, you can freeze the meat but fresh veggies can only be refrigerated at best, which means you have to buy small quantities frequently.

(via Chris Blattman)

Cowen: protest non-voters are poseurs

The people who think they are being instrumentally rational by not voting are probably deceiving themselves more.  They are actually engaged in an even less transparent form of expressive behavior (protest against the voting system) and yet cloaking that behavior under the guise of instrumental rationality.

Link. If you have not already bookmarked Marginal Revolution, you are missing out.

Canada-EU free trade: now please

I don’t know much about economics (and certainly nothing about the financial crisis) but I get free trade. It might be a little odd to have a free trade agreement with Mexico, but free trade with the EU makes perfect sense.

Europe is a huge and modern economy, and we should be delighted that they might consider opening their doors to our goods and (hopefully) our workers. There’s nothing to lose in free trade with Europe. It’ll be sort of like having two Americas to trade with. Sure, they’re across an ocean, but there’s even more water between us and China and it doesn’t put a damper on things.

Let’s do this!

Minimum wage doesn’t reduce employment

The minimum wage, like most cogs in the welfare state, can be argued for on compassionate grounds alone. What is the minimum that an individual’s time is worth? If we let someone do a job for less than a decent amount, we are a poorer society for it, even if some of us are a little wealthier.

But then, by that argument one might justify a communist dictatorship. There comes a point when the costs outweigh the benefits.

So it heartens me to share with you some newly quantified benefits of raising the minimum wage. Two recent studies both found that a rising minimum wage doesn’t put people out of work.

The researchers say their findings may be due to the fact that a higher minimum wage attracts more workers and reduces a firm ’s vacancy rate; in addition, decreased turnover increases productivity and reduces the cost of expanding employment, they say.

It always makes me happy when it turns out the solution to any problem isn’t a race to the bottom.

[photo] “Counting coins” by Marion Doss