Whoops

These things never seem to happen to my fellow teachers.

Yesterday we were talking about price ceilings (government mandated price caps) in my macro class. They lead to shortages and, invariably, people attempt to cheat on them. I was using coffee as my example and I hypothesized a maximum price of $3 per cup -- far below the market clearing price of $5 in my example.

Anyway, I was walking them through the analysis of the unintended effects of the ceiling and I decided to use one of my students to illustrate a point about people cheating on the cap. Lily (not her real name) works at a Starbucks in Athens, so I decided to have her play the role of coffee shop owner. I then set the scene: I'm desperate for a cup of coffee and I have my $3, but Lily's shop is all sold out of the "cheap" coffee. "What," I asked Lily, "could I offer you to convince you to make me another cup of coffee?"

I was anticipating she would say, "More money." Well she did say that, sort of. What she said was, "You could offer me six." Now she meant if I was willing to pay her $6, rather than the mandated $3 price, then she'd take the time and go to the trouble of making some more coffee -- a perfectly fine answer. The problem was, I did not hear SIX. I heard a different word that starts with S, ends with X, and has a vowel in the middle!

I immediately froze and said, "I could offer you WHAT?" She repeated her answer and then, foolishly, I blurted out, "OH, I didn't hear SIX." Well the rest of the class then figured out what I thought she had said and much hilarity followed. I feel sure I turned a pleasant shade of crimson, as did Lily. To her credit, though, she handled it MUCH better than I would have in her position. If that had happened to me, I think I'd have gone to drop the class immediately. Hopefully she won't.

Anyway, another exciting day in econ. I just don't get why some people think it's a boring subject.