Aren't You Cold?

By revealed preference, you'd grow more hair on your legs if you were cold.

But seriously, this kind of reasoning also explains why execs still wear suits in SoCal. Total discomfort cost might be $15/day ($4000-ish a year). But the top-line might be a $50K bonus for dressing nicely versus being a slob.

But if the guys in SoCal all cohesivley decided that it was stupid, they'd still be getting that $50k because they'd come up with more comfortable nicely dressed things to wear. They're just stuck in the suit rut.

On the other hand, I honestly have to question just how uncomfortable wearing pants inside makes you. I wear regular pants in the summer a fair amount and inside it's not really bad at all.

Of course, I DO spend the winter in the frozen wastelands of Troy, NY, which I imagine is a might bit colder than DC.

Nice reasoning.

Only that the purpose of dressing is not protection against weather. Dress is not functional, it is mainly a social signalling device.

Lets remake Brad's calculation in a Hassidic environment. No 50K bonuses here. You dress like a 17th Century Polish noble in the crudest of the winters, with a big fur hat, even if in fact you are being fried alive in tropical Miami. Why? Because your disconfort signals to your business partners and your rabbi that you are a dedicated and faithful Hassid, creditworthy and not likely to cheat on them.

Corollary: Caring little for convention does not pay.

PS: I hate convention and look where I am.

I had a college roomate from Alaska, who told mne that the stores were kept at a lower temperature since shoppers were dressed for really cold weather.

Bryon,
You do express the rationalism to be found in most Economic Professors from California. Question: When does the irrelevance Cost exceed the the Computation Costs of the Analysis? lgl

Without realizing it, Bryan just answered one of the questions he asked in a previous post. Should economists go to finishing school? Yes--obviously. tk

Bryan, did you include in your calculations the "discomfort cost" of everyone who sees you thinking you're a COMPLETE DORK?

Why are buildings kept at 75 degrees in the winter when keeping them at 60 degrees both reduces the cost of heating the building and minimizes total "discomfort costs" (using same discomfort cost function as Bryan and assuming over 50% of individuals wear pants)?

"But if the guys in SoCal all cohesivley decided that it was stupid, they'd still be getting that $50k because they'd come up with more comfortable nicely dressed things to wear. They're just stuck in the suit rut."

Danno, I fear the "suit rut" is more than just a psychological hang-up; it's a of prisoner's dilemma. The optimal collective outcome is no suits, but no individual, upwardly-striving exec has any incentive to move toward that goal alone, unless he's willing to make himself worse off.

Sucks to be Brian on this post.

In all fairness though, weirdos are excellent to have around. I'd be sad if Bryan didn't wear shorts and roll 100-sided dice.

i think wat your saying about discomfort is really logical i want to where shorts almost all year round but my mom will not let me im going to send this to her...haha
thank you for this information