Economics of Advice

When K- and I first learned that Liam was coming, we were surprised to learn that he came with a membership in the Baby Club. If you are not familiar, the moment you are going to have a child you are inducted into a semi-secret club of other parents and honorary members. One of the perks of belonging to the club is that other people take a surprising interest in your mundane day-to-day activities. Another perk is advice.

In economics, everything is supposed to follow the law of supply and demand. It would seem that advice follows this law perfectly - everyone has advice and therefore no one takes it.

However, a wrinkle comes in when you bring in questions of value - not all advice is created equal. Economics says, if someone wanted to give you a 42 inch plasma TV (instead of your 13 inch B/W), you would take it. However, with advice (especially with new parents), this doesn't seem to be the case. Even when people want advice, an impervious force field seems to go up. Over a bottle last night, Liam has offered a couple of hypotheses:

1. The advice simply isn't good. For example, when K- was told by a Lactation Consultant that she should breast feed, because formula makes babies stink more and it is hard to love a crying, stinky baby.

I told Liam that this really doesn't violate any ideas of value. He cried like a baby and then offered . . .

2. Another hypothesis is that the advisee is not ready. In the case of new parents, the fog (a cocktail of crying baby, lack of sleep, and daytime TV) blocks all words except your,baby,is,perfect or any permutations. In other words, context creates value.

Liam sucked a little more on his bottle, getting sleepy, and then bolted up . . .

3. Another possibility is that the advisee doesn't want to admit they don't have all the answers. In the case of new parents, Liam offered, this is all the more relevant, because who wants the connotations of being (at the very least) an unfit parent and (at the very worst) being Micheal Keaton in Mr. Mom. In other words, motivation creates value.

I know the Nobel Prize in Economics was annonced last week and Liam was only 5 days old, but I really think the committee should reconsider Phelps' prize. Liam . . . Nobel Laureate, it has a lovely ring.