Optimal Resource Allocation
And the Economics of the Dating Game
From an economist's point-of-view, love and relationships are really just a series of successful market-making.
You may find the man/woman of your dreams, but if your love is urequited, it stands as a fantasy and not love.
You will then move on and possibly better candidates, or possibly not.
But eventually, the reality is you will not necessarily end up with the one you love or the one who loves you most. You will most probably end up with the person who happens to be there when you needed someone to be around.
In economic parlence, the market has been cleared.
Think of it this way: the supply curve represents the effort your are willing to put into jioing each girl/guy. Correspondingly, the demand curve represents the minimum effort each party would want to receive from you before committing into a relationship.
So when S>D, you can either scale back your efforts and target someone you think is less worthy (measured on the horizontal axis), or you can hope you strike lottery that will greatly boost your eligibility.
But the practical homo sapiens in us will normally just choose to scale back rather than hold on to the same target. So you'll move down the supply curve but, at the same time, liberated by your decision to move on, you will also find more candidates who are possibly more open to your advances too.
The process continues until eventually your efforts are recognised by someone who appreciates and voila! Love happens.
It may seem a little over simplistic as a model. But my poit here is this: love, marriage and relationships are as much a function of convenience and selfishness as they are a function of commitment and mutual attraction.
Putting things into perspectives, there is nothing that much glamorous about love is there now?
And if you insist that true love and selflessness can prevail, think again. If you hold out for the only person you think you love, is this mroe to satisfy your heart's desire, to get what you want? Or because you truly think you are the best for this person?
---------
Ok, i'm gibbering nonsense when i have a research paper to work on. But ok this can be my research paper haha. But no matter, time someone breathed some life back into this blog.
And just a disclaimer here: drew this lesson from collective experiences of others. So don't start any weird ideas pls.
I am as cynical as ever.
From an economist's point-of-view, love and relationships are really just a series of successful market-making.
You may find the man/woman of your dreams, but if your love is urequited, it stands as a fantasy and not love.
You will then move on and possibly better candidates, or possibly not.
But eventually, the reality is you will not necessarily end up with the one you love or the one who loves you most. You will most probably end up with the person who happens to be there when you needed someone to be around.
In economic parlence, the market has been cleared.
Think of it this way: the supply curve represents the effort your are willing to put into jioing each girl/guy. Correspondingly, the demand curve represents the minimum effort each party would want to receive from you before committing into a relationship.
So when S>D, you can either scale back your efforts and target someone you think is less worthy (measured on the horizontal axis), or you can hope you strike lottery that will greatly boost your eligibility.
But the practical homo sapiens in us will normally just choose to scale back rather than hold on to the same target. So you'll move down the supply curve but, at the same time, liberated by your decision to move on, you will also find more candidates who are possibly more open to your advances too.
The process continues until eventually your efforts are recognised by someone who appreciates and voila! Love happens.
It may seem a little over simplistic as a model. But my poit here is this: love, marriage and relationships are as much a function of convenience and selfishness as they are a function of commitment and mutual attraction.
Putting things into perspectives, there is nothing that much glamorous about love is there now?
And if you insist that true love and selflessness can prevail, think again. If you hold out for the only person you think you love, is this mroe to satisfy your heart's desire, to get what you want? Or because you truly think you are the best for this person?
---------
Ok, i'm gibbering nonsense when i have a research paper to work on. But ok this can be my research paper haha. But no matter, time someone breathed some life back into this blog.
And just a disclaimer here: drew this lesson from collective experiences of others. So don't start any weird ideas pls.
I am as cynical as ever.
posted by taitai @ 3:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home