>BYLINE: Each September the state of Massachusetts asks one thing from "Scarcity" author and Harvard economist, Sendhil Mullainathan, to renew his car inspectio

>BYLINE: Each September the state of Massachusetts asks one thing from "Scarcity" author and Harvard economist, Sendhil Mullainathan, to renew his car inspection sticker and each year this recipient of the MacArthur Genius Award does the same thing. He's really busy, so on each day leading up to the expiration of the sticker, he tells himself he'll attend to it the next day. This guy has a serious logic flaw in his way of thinking. It scares me that there are people out there teaching economics in supposedly prominent schools. It was not scarcity that affected his thinking. It was his irresponsibility. By scarcity of time, the author is including things like watching television, writing a book on the side, ETC. This is a simple case of procrastination. These are optional things in the same way that someone with a meager income can live in relative comfort in America (never go hungry, wet or cold), Then they decide to buy a fancy new car (though nothing was wrong with their older model Honda). Now they have created a scarcity because they suddenly cannot afford to pay their rent. It was not the scarcity that affected their thinking and behavior, it was self indulgence and irresponsibility that caused the scarcity if the first place.