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The Harvard Salient |
October 21, 1996 |
Major League ballplayers hit almost 5,000 home runs this year. Dozens were caught by kids. Only one such kid has been called a "hero" for his efforts. What does it say about our country that Jeff Maier achieved his notoriety by cheating? Let's be clear on this point: The twelve-year-old who reached over the fence to turn a Yankee fly ball into a playoff home run does not merit condemnation. Those who treat him as an icon do. His new fans play down the controversial circumstances, and credit him with a child's innocence. Yet his less-than-innocent effect on the game's outcome is the very reason for his fame.
Both politics and sports reflect these twisted societal values. Bill Clinton's marital and financial problems are treated as benignly as his weight problem. Oriole fans give their biggest cheers to their best spitter rather than their best hitter. Our society is now worse than amoral &emdash; it rewards immorality, and reveres public figures precisely because their imperfections mirror our own. "Heroes" used to be better than us. Now that they are not, is it any wonder that so few people strive to be better themselves? (Matt Bruce)
Sitting in Loker Commons the other day, I was struck by Harvard's sheer brilliance in instituting the new Crimson Cash and Board Plus system. Of course, students love it for the convenience &emdash; the end of walking into a library and searching through a pocket full of VendaCards for the right one, the ability to purchase food when one is flat broke, and eventually the ability to do laundry without a roll of quarters.
What most students do not consider, however, are the economic consequences of this system. We become oblivious to inflation. While prices have been increased on library photocopiers, Loker coffee and food, and other commodities, many of us have not noticed. Without the necessity of reaching into a wallet and pulling out a dollar bill, and later replacing it with another bill from a (declining) bank account, we just "charge" it, and do not even notice the price. Winner: Harvard University.
The use of Board Plus, apparently a $50 per semester handout from Harvard Dining Services, is a study of the budget constraints of Harvard students. As one would expect, our budget constraints will shift outwards, due to the extra $50 of Board Plus money which we all have available. HDS expects, however, that we will not just spend the extra $50 of income at HDS locations, but will in fact alter our relative perceptions of the nature of HDS food and the (Harvard Square area) competition, such that HDS becomes relatively less expensive. Therefore, we will increase our consumption of food in Loker and elsewhere by more than $50, and in fact by more than we otherwise might &emdash; a cup of coffee in the morning, a cookie in mid-afternoon, a bagel to replace the forgotten dining hall bag lunch, and so forth. Winner: Harvard University.
Prices may also become less "sticky." When laundry machines start to accept Crimson Cash, prices need no longer be increments of $.25. It will be possible to charge $.80, or $.85 for a load without reconfiguring the machines for multiple types of coins. Just a little reprogramming and we will all have the privilege of paying a higher price to wash our clothes. And since laundry is an inelastic good (would you wear fewer clothes if it cost more to wash them?), this is unlikely to alter consumer behavior. This means the laundry vendors earn higher profits, and we lose more money. Winners: Harvard and the vendors.
As Crimson Cash goes through its first full year, it will be interesting to note what the actual impact of these policies may be. As can be seen, however, the University is certainly a self-interested actor in the best Smithian sense. The result? Another $10 of Crimson Cash, please. (Cameron Half)