Creating a game you can win

Back in the day there was a western TV series, “Maverick,” about two brothers travelling in the West and talking about lessons taught them by their old pappy. Two of them were never to draw to an inside straight and never get caught in another man’s game. An economist might add another “the law of diminishing returns.”

I met with an old friend in Houston last week and he was talking about the fabulous salaries young college-trained couples in their 30s made in the major cities. He then noted that even with their incomes their budgets were just one missed paycheck away from disaster due to spending habits. Yet he said they weren’t as satisfied with life as we were 50 years ago with nothing. What this means is once an economic equilibrium is reached, where the basic needs of life are met, any effort to achieve more income will be offset by the reduced amount of satisfaction obtained with the money.

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