Everyone is familiar with the concept of calling shotgun. When there are three or more people going to get in the same car, someone always calls shotgun. The front passenger seat is arguably better than any other passenger spot; You get as much leg room as you want, your view isn’t limited to the seat in front of you, and you have easy access to radio and climate controls. Clearly, this is a seat in the car that everyone wants. My group of friends, however, has gotten into the habit of also calling “left-side.” That is, after shotgun has been grabbed by someone, the next-highest seat in the hierarchy is the leftmost seat in the back. This seat is arguably not better than the right-side seat in the back (although both are clearly better than bitch). The point here is that someone always calls left-side, and for apparently no reason. Of course, what’s really going on here is “left-side economics” (a term coined by roommate Nick).
Left-side economics refers to a system where demand begets more demand. The demand here is for the left-side seat in the car. The actual seat is not worthy of demand, but it has a higher position in the hierarchy than the right-side seat. Why? Because it has higher demand. To recap more succinctly: Everyone wants the left-side seat because it has more prestige than the right-side, but it only has more prestige than the right-side because everyone wants it.
Here are a couple analogies.
In the 1920′s, the stock market was chock full of left-side economics. People bought up plenty of stocks because of the expectation that stock prices were ever rising. However, rising stock prices were caused mostly by the increased demand for shares of stock. That is, the demand for stocks was caused by the existing demand, and this only created more demand. What’s missing from the equation here? Actual value. Go left-side economics!
The same can be said of the Tulip crash in Holland. The same kind of thing happened — people started to notice a trend in the tulip market that tulip bulbs were going way up in price all the time. Everyone bought them up expecting to be able to sell them for more, and this buy-craze only served to increase prices further. Again, the tulip bulbs themselves have very little value, it was only the artificial value that made people buy them. Left-side economics strikes again.
A common theme among the stock market crash and the tulip crash is… well… the crash. Eventually people realize that the huge demand for these things is based on an artificial notion, and as soon as confidence starts to slip, the true value takes hold. This is the fundamental problem with left-side economics. And I am waiting for the left-side of the car to crash any day. (Especially if a woman is driving it LOLOL!!!111one)
This is a stunningly comprehensive look at a very difficult phenomenon. Well wrote Dav.