Freak

I finished the bulk of Freakonomics during the mornings in hall when I was at Kidsworld camp, uninterrupted and undisturbed. Then, I wrapped up reading it yesterday night and thought to myself: What the heck is it trying to say? It is indeed true that there's no unifying theory though the absurdity of the links Levitt and Dubner drew made me laugh out a little. Mostly the book was about induction, by observing what's happening in the real world and trying to match phenomena using desirable explanations. Plus backing up with some statistics and tables.

This makes me think of something that happened this morning while I was buying Macs. After I made my order, I had to wait for my Egg McMuffin. There was an auntie behind me that was trying to be triple-sure that the auntie behind the cashier remembered that she wants no cheese on her Sausage McMuffin. Ok. Then, my Egg McMuffin was finally ready on the counter, but I was distracted by "I don't know what". Auntie-behind-me thought it was hers and swift as lightning, grabbed the burger, opened it and told the auntie-behind-cashier demandingly that she had wanted no cheese. But, gosh, that's like my burger!

The auntie-behind-cashier looked sheepishly at me and attempted to berate the auntie-behind-me. But, well, I didn't really mind taking the burger since not much harm was done and I certainly didn't want to waste food. But, the auntie-behind-cashier was adamant about making a new one for me and explained to me it was their service policy. Now, I know Macs' service policy includes a little food wastage.

Now, what's the trade-off, you ask? There's almost near-zero chance that I'll contract some food poisoning from an exposed-to-air burger, especially when I'm someone who practices the 30-50 seconds rule, that says that something that drops on the floor is still very much edible. Also, if she had judged me by my looks, she would know that I'm a harmless little lamb and not an irate customer who would demand to see some higher-up authority. My love for Macs would outweigh the possibility of me boycotting Macs just because of one "unpleasant" incident which I could hardly call unpleasant.

Instead, by refusing me the burger, and making another one for me, I had to wait an additional 10 minutes, which might have made me miss the previous bus. Also, if you count social incentives, exiling a burger to the bin does not make a lot of sense as that's a total waste of food.

However, there might be one positive externality after all. Maybe, she did have a reason for refusing me the burger. That is, if you remember that the primary principle of economics is an individual would want to maximise his own gains and work towards his or her benefit, for all kinds of selfish reason, the auntie-behind-cashier totally wanted my burger for herself, at no cost. She would have gotten herself a free lunch.

ZOMG. So unethical.