You
may wonder why the paradoxes above seem unrelated to its title. And here it is:
Imagine
a country where almost all women are monogamous, while all men demand two
female partners per year.
A few
prostitutes end up servicing all the men. Before long, the prostitutes are
infected by AIDS and they pass it on to the men. The men bring it home to their
wives.
But if
each of those monogamous wives were willing to take on one extramarital
partner, the market for prostitution would die out and so does the virus.
Therefore monogamy can be deadly. (p.11)
This
book is about a general principle of economics:
things tend to work out best when people
have to live with the consequences of their own behaviour
OR
things tend to work out poorly when the
consequences of our actions spill over onto other people (p.4).
What do
you think?
Landsburg,
S. (2008). More sex us safer sex. NY:
Free Press
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