DISQUS

Will Wilkinson: Why Isn’t Caplan in the Kitchen?

  • MikeWebkist · 2 years ago
    As Heinlein said, "Specialization is for insects."

    Any man who "can't clean, cook, or shop to save his life" has chosen to be an insect.
  • Nicholas Weininger · 2 years ago
    Also, false dichotomy alert. Why does either of them have to specialize in cooking, cleaning, and shopping? Why couldn't they be better off both specializing in bringing home the bread, and using the resultant increased income to get takeout meals, hire a maid service, and pay delivery fees?
  • GilM · 2 years ago
    On the other hand, there's nothing magically best about the 50/50 distribution. It smacks of dogmatic egalitarianism to me.

    Couples should figure out what distribution works best for them (and it will probably change over time).
  • Grant Gould · 2 years ago
    Comparative advantage is a good way to look at the problem. To translate 50/50 to "exactly half of every task" is a logical jump akin to the argument that trade causes inequality -- a complete blindness to the notion that bargaining and trade can improve everyone's lot.

    I like to cook, and my wife loathes cooking. It is perfectly reasonable, then, for us to make the exchange that I do the cooking and she cleans up after. (This creates an incentive problem with respect to dirty dishes, of course, but the savvy married person will generally be able to handle it).

    50/50 is, conceptually, the right place from which to start bargaining. This means that it will almost never be the right place to stop bargaining.