Chapter 105 Chapter 8 Natural Economics in Reality

Why is the use of mobile phone SMS far more common in most Asian countries than in the United States? Why is aluminum can recycling higher in Brazil than in the US? Why in South Korea and many other Asian countries, movie theaters are reserved for seats, but in the United States, movie theaters are always seated? Why do American movie theaters generally allow audiences to watch multiple movies with one ticket, while Asian movie theaters only allow one movie ticket to watch one movie? Why is the US men's soccer team doing so poorly in international competitions while the US women's soccer team is so much better?

Why is the price of sugar for American consumers more than twice the global price? Why do Europeans prefer to buy smaller cars than Americans? Why do luxury cars account for a higher percentage of cars sold in Singapore than in the US? Why are pedestrians fined in Rome for failing to obey traffic rules, but not in New York? Why is the DVD format used in the US different from Europe and elsewhere, but the CD format is the same everywhere? Why do Japanese couples spend more on their wedding than American couples? The details of economic life vary from country to country.For example, houses in Japan are much smaller than those in the United States.People tend to attribute this difference to different cultures, but this begs another question: Why are cultures different?Are these differences merely the result of accidental customs thousands of years ago?

Psychologist Jerome.Jerome Kagan once pointed out that many cultural norms were created by people of different eras and regions to solve a series of problems faced by the local people at that time.He found that societies with high child mortality tended to have cultures that promoted indifference and detachment from the outside world, while societies with frequent wars celebrated courage. In the spirit of Kegan, this chapter looks at the differences in behavior across countries due to differences in relative costs and benefits.Per capita income is the most significant difference between countries.People with different incomes mostly make different choices, regardless of their cultural background.