No Photo With This Thought

I'm currently doing a degree in Commerce at the University of Victoria, which means I take more than my fair share of Economics courses. Microeconomics has always fascinated me, because it seems to apply to almost everything else in the world. Here's an example that struck me as I was walking to the bus the other day.

In the study of microeconomics, there are graphs that map out consumers preferences as consumption bundles (these are called indifference curves). The graph, a curved, concave up, downward sloping line, represents all bundles of good x and y that will give a consumer the SAME amount of satisfaction, or utility.

There are also straight, downward sloping lines called budget lines, which represent what the consumer in question can actually afford.

The consumer will always select a consumption bundle on the highest indifference curve that the budget line will permit. Make sense? Now, I'm going to apply these principles to dating and attraction.

Let's call the y-axis the personality of a prospective mate (instead of the amount of good y) and the x-axis physical attractiveness (instead of the amount of good x). The indifference curve, in this case, will graph out all possible combinations of personality and looks that would make said person equally happy. Higher indifference curves, in this case, mean a better all-around "mate."

The budget line in this case represent what the person can get. Now, of course, this part is hard to measure, as it's all subjective. It's not hard to ballpark though. Zippy the pinhead will have a pretty low budget line (probably can't attract Jessica Alba) whereas Brad Pitt probably has a really high budget line.

Now, what's the point of this application? To prove that everybody, no matter how high-and-mighty they think they are, will not settle for less than they can get. It's why you never see a VERY attractive girl with an ugly guy, or vice versa. The physical attractiveness may be slightly different, however that person will have a better personality to compensate.

Nobody ever settles for an indifference curve that's below their budget line. Why would they? That would make zero sense.

I have the utmost confidence in this rule. People don't date out of their leagues, and the science of economics only proves this.