Yesterday I made
guacamole again (I’ve made it a few times in the past couple of weeks tweaking
my recipe as I go) and this time I invited Emily over to have dinner with Drew
and myself. I may not be able to cook many things, but I can make a mean
guacamole. Emily brought three bottles of wine, all of the ingredients
necessary for Chicken Parmesan, and Molly. I also roasted some vegetables,
which I’ve gotten better and better at and I think I’ve finally figured out a
way to brown them, which I’m quite pleased about.
Together, Emily
and I crafted a meal that would probably be considered unorthodox by most food
connoisseurs, and while I can understand why they may frown on mashing styles
together as we did, for the most part, it worked. Admittedly, there were points
that the flavors clashed too severely (like trying to drink red wine with
guacamole – that’s a no-no), but these served as a clear indicator to pause one
activity to resume only after the taste of the other had dissipated and
disappeared from your taste buds.
Dinner was great
though – we had chips and guacamole, roasted potatoes, onions, carrots and bell
peppers, pesto pasta, chicken parmesan, and wine. I had some Madhatters playing
in the background so I got to brag a bit about UW over dinner which is always
fun.
After dinner, we
went to a bar to meet up with some people. It was the first time I’d been out
on a weeknight in a while and it was a lot of fun. I didn’t have anything more
to drink at the bar but I still had a good time just being out and talking with
people.
When I finally
got to sleep around 1, I had 5 ½ hours of sleep to look forward to before
having to wake up for a phone call to a friend for some advice regarding my
future and potential summer internships. Paul was really helpful and helped
settle my nerves a bit in that I have a few months to go before most firms even
start recruiting and that for the most part I am doing the right things
already, so that was reassuring. Still though, it now looks like I’ll be
applying to write a senior thesis.
On the topic of
the thesis – when I was walking home tonight I was thinking about a recent
conversation I had with a classmate here about potentially regulating
prostitution. My friend argued against the idea because she thought that by
regulating prostitution you are implicitly legitimizing the practices, which
she sees as inherently degrading. I can see where she’s coming from but the
argument itself was not really what I was concerned with tonight. Rather, I
want to know what the economic consequences are of regulating prostitution and
drugs. Markets – if you’ll allow me to refer to the drug and sex trade as
markets – can be regulated in various ways and different policies will play out
differently. A popular argument (though clearly not popular enough given Prop
19’s recent failure in California) is that legalizing marijuana and regulating
its distribution and sale can raise huge tax receipts for the state, which is
badly in need of funds. There are fewer ethical arguments against weed these
days than trafficking in sex, so where does that leave regulation of
prostitution? What would happen if the instead of a Prohibition approach (where
the entire trade is illegal) the government was to regulate but discourage it
through market controls? A regulated industry is no longer a free market
situation and so the law of supply and demand does not apply. If the government
were to institute a price floor and create a shortage, would it not be possible
to reduce the number of prostitutes, increase the welfare of those still in the
market, and also monitor the industry to prevent abuses? Would regulating the sex
trade have perverse and undesirable consequences? Though I don’t see America
legitimizing prostitution in the near future – we are a far too religious and
socially conservative nation – the exercise is not without precedent: there’s
the famous red light district in Amsterdam, Hamburg has a lesser-known red
light district of its own, and Prague recently passed legislation to regulate
and tax the industry (I believe this will go into effect in the new year). Anyway,
I think it would be a really interesting thesis topic to analyze and compare (economic)
policy as it relates to markets that can be considered morally reprehensible and
see the consequences – politically, economically, socially, etc. – I wonder if
I’d be allowed to research it…
In (un)related
news, I’m reading the Godfather right now – I can’t remember the last time I
read a book that was this engrossing. I bring it to school every morning and
though I don’t read much at the study center (where I’m easily distracted by
the internet and less so by homework) I read it while I walk and since that’s
pretty much the only time I find time to read it during the week, I have found
that I have literally slowed my walk down so as to give me more time. Tonight,
I even stopped just so I could finish a chapter before my light disappeared. Amazing.
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