3 ms·

The theory of "car dent" and "no of dishes in sink" are kind of justified but the "protagonist" of the article i.e. no of bee stings does not fit with the theor

by uast23 16y ago

The theory of "car dent" and "no of dishes in sink" are kind of justified but the "protagonist" of the article i.e. no of bee stings does not fit with the theory of poverty at all. Does not matter if someone has one or ten bee stings, people get it cured for sure.

dinedal 16y ago
Suppose you get X bee stings (problems) in one day, and you have a bee string rate of Y per day normally. If you can only afford to buy cures at a rate of Z per day (let's be optimistic and assume it's greater then Y) it will take you X-(Z-Y) days to cure all your bee stings. Now, a bee sting sucks, but it doesn't kill you. In fact, life without any bee stings is, let's say, Q times better then with. Yet, the difference between 1 bee sting and N bee stings is pretty much nil, they all hurt. The only real benefit occurs when you cross the threshold that lets you have no bee stings at the end of each day. The theory, as I understand it, proposes that given a big enough X, a person with a small (Z-Y), won't bother with curing bee stings, regardless of Q.
- yummyfajitas 16y ago
  You may or may not do it, depending your discount rate. Suppose being bee-sting free is worth H dollars/day to you, and the cure costs C dollars/day. As long as C/H < exp(-r( days until fully cured)) (where r is your discount rate), you'll buy the the cure. Since r tends to be larger for the poor than for the middle class/rich, C/H is likely to be less than exp(-r(days until fully cured)), since the larger r gets, the smaller this constant gets. This is just standard econ, BTW.
- uast23 16y ago
  My comment was meant for the literal meaning for "Bee sting". What if I replace "bee sting" with a "cut finger". You will say whether it is one finger off from your body or 10 fingers off... it hurts the same!!!... so no need to pay attention. In theory your/author's logic sounds good... but practically it does not make sense. I would still say that the analogy of car dents OR no of dishes in the sink is a better way to present it. Its a little impractical to count "physical/bodily" pains in numbers.
  - dinedal 16y ago
    I think you're taking the bee sting far too literally. Although I do agree that the bee sting isn't exactly the best fit for an analogy, I don't agree the dishes in sink / car dents is any better.
- mkramlich 16y ago
  did I miss out on bee sting algebra class?
ZeroGravitas 16y ago
I didn't really understand this bee metaphor either. The last few times I got stung, I just waited until it stopped hurting. If I got stung all at once by a swarm I'd probably seek medical help. If I was getting regularly stung then I'd probably spend some time planning how to change whatever in my life was causing me to be repeatedly stung. The car one made more sense, similar to the broken window theory, you'll be more careful and quick to fix the first problem if you have no other scratches and dents and grow ever less careful if they start to mount up and you don't have the time/resources/money/ability to get them repaired.
- nkurz 16y ago
  I didn't like the bee metaphor at first, but I think it's actually fairly accurate. In real life, I keep bees in my backyard, and periodically am stung while tending them, usually when I do something wrong (not enough smoke, working into evening). While being stung hundreds of times might be life threatening, what's probably not apparent is that being stung once and being stung 6 times causes approximately equal physical discomfort. It's really the worst sting (the one on your hand or face) that bothers you. It overshadows all the others. If you were to ask: how much would I pay to have gotten one sting less, that number is very different for the first sting versus the last. This is his metaphor: how hard would you work if you were still going to have lots of pain outstanding when you get your paycheck? The other part of the metaphor, which I don't think he intended, has to do with the acceptance involved. I realize that when I get stung by a bee on the back of my hand, it will swell up and leave my hand mostly unusable for a couple of days. Despite this, I keep bees. I think there is some deep rich vs poor metaphor here.
mikecane 16y ago
Read Bukowski. He has nailed it: http://allisonlanda.blogspot.com/2009/02/bukowski-shoelace.html http://allisonlanda.blogspot.com/2009/02/bukowski-shoelace.h...

by uast23 16y ago

dinedal 16y ago

Suppose you get X bee stings (problems) in one day, and you have a bee string rate of Y per day normally. If you can only afford to buy cures at a rate of Z per day (let's be optimistic and assume it's greater then Y) it will take you X-(Z-Y) days to cure all your bee stings. Now, a bee sting sucks, but it doesn't kill you. In fact, life without any bee stings is, let's say, Q times better then with. Yet, the difference between 1 bee sting and N bee stings is pretty much nil, they all hurt. The only real benefit occurs when you cross the threshold that lets you have no bee stings at the end of each day. The theory, as I understand it, proposes that given a big enough X, a person with a small (Z-Y), won't bother with curing bee stings, regardless of Q.

yummyfajitas 16y ago
You may or may not do it, depending your discount rate. Suppose being bee-sting free is worth H dollars/day to you, and the cure costs C dollars/day. As long as C/H < exp(-r( days until fully cured)) (where r is your discount rate), you'll buy the the cure. Since r tends to be larger for the poor than for the middle class/rich, C/H is likely to be less than exp(-r(days until fully cured)), since the larger r gets, the smaller this constant gets. This is just standard econ, BTW.
uast23 16y ago
My comment was meant for the literal meaning for "Bee sting". What if I replace "bee sting" with a "cut finger". You will say whether it is one finger off from your body or 10 fingers off... it hurts the same!!!... so no need to pay attention. In theory your/author's logic sounds good... but practically it does not make sense. I would still say that the analogy of car dents OR no of dishes in the sink is a better way to present it. Its a little impractical to count "physical/bodily" pains in numbers.
- dinedal 16y ago
  I think you're taking the bee sting far too literally. Although I do agree that the bee sting isn't exactly the best fit for an analogy, I don't agree the dishes in sink / car dents is any better.
mkramlich 16y ago
did I miss out on bee sting algebra class?

ZeroGravitas 16y ago

I didn't really understand this bee metaphor either. The last few times I got stung, I just waited until it stopped hurting. If I got stung all at once by a swarm I'd probably seek medical help. If I was getting regularly stung then I'd probably spend some time planning how to change whatever in my life was causing me to be repeatedly stung. The car one made more sense, similar to the broken window theory, you'll be more careful and quick to fix the first problem if you have no other scratches and dents and grow ever less careful if they start to mount up and you don't have the time/resources/money/ability to get them repaired.

nkurz 16y ago
I didn't like the bee metaphor at first, but I think it's actually fairly accurate. In real life, I keep bees in my backyard, and periodically am stung while tending them, usually when I do something wrong (not enough smoke, working into evening). While being stung hundreds of times might be life threatening, what's probably not apparent is that being stung once and being stung 6 times causes approximately equal physical discomfort. It's really the worst sting (the one on your hand or face) that bothers you. It overshadows all the others. If you were to ask: how much would I pay to have gotten one sting less, that number is very different for the first sting versus the last. This is his metaphor: how hard would you work if you were still going to have lots of pain outstanding when you get your paycheck? The other part of the metaphor, which I don't think he intended, has to do with the acceptance involved. I realize that when I get stung by a bee on the back of my hand, it will swell up and leave my hand mostly unusable for a couple of days. Despite this, I keep bees. I think there is some deep rich vs poor metaphor here.

mikecane 16y ago

Read Bukowski. He has nailed it: http://allisonlanda.blogspot.com/2009/02/bukowski-shoelace.html http://allisonlanda.blogspot.com/2009/02/bukowski-shoelace.h...