What makes the last piece of Pizza* so damned special?

[Megbert]

OK you get yerself and a friend or 2 a pizza or 2 or 3. Eat the living crap outta it till the very last piece then it's "You want the last piece?" "Nah don't wanna take the last piece" "You sure? cause I am pretty full" "Well if you don't want it" Etc.

This happens with gum as well. "Hey anyone gotta piece of gum I could have? It tastes like Nell Carter shat in my mouth" "I do but it's my last piece" "OH OK" What the hell you chewed the previous 14 peices and you can't part with 1?

[penguinz]

It is the last piece. What else do you need to know?

[Fish]

greed.....?

[Megbert]

Originally Posted by penguinz

It is the last piece. What else do you need to know?

What makes it any different than say the 3rd piece. The piece just happened to be 'lucky' enough to be left for last.

[penguinz]

Originally Posted by AZChiefFan

What makes it any different than say the 3rd piece. The piece just happened to be 'lucky' enough to be left for last.

It is the only piece left whereas there is more left after the 3rd piece. (assuming the pizza was cut into more than three pieces.)

[Rain Man]

It's supply and demand. When the supply of pizza slices is high, they have less value. When the supply is low, they have more value. If there's only one piece left, then it ostensibly has a very high value, which makes the decision of who gets it a weighty one.

Now, to some extent, this is offset by changes in demand. When there are a lot of pieces of pizza, demand is also presumably high because people are hungry. As the supply goes down, so does demand. Therefore, there's an economic self-regulation that takes place.

However, that regulation is not perfectly proportional. For example, if you have two anorexics and 400 pieces of pizza, demand goes down faster than supply, and therefore the value of each piece goes down faster than the supply, so that the "last piece" really has no value (in part because there is no last piece).

On the other hand, if you have two professional wrestlers and only five slices of pizza, the supply goes down much faster than the demand, and the value of each slice goes up dramatically as supply goes down. The question of the last piece then becomes whether it is worth more or less than the medical cost that results from being slammed in the head with a folding chair.

All in all, it's a very dynamic and complex process.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

It's supply and demand. When the supply of pizza slices is high, they have less value. When the supply is low, they have more value. If there's only one piece left, then it ostensibly has a very high value, which makes the decision of who gets it a weighty one.

Now, to some extent, this is offset by changes in demand. When there are a lot of pieces of pizza, demand is also presumably high because people are hungry. As the supply goes down, so does demand. Therefore, there's an economic self-regulation that takes place.

However, that regulation is not perfectly proportional. For example, if you have two anorexics and 400 pieces of pizza, demand goes down faster than supply, and therefore the value of each piece goes down faster than the supply, so that the "last piece" really has no value (in part because there is no last piece).

On the other hand, if you have two professional wrestlers and only five slices of pizza, the supply goes down much faster than the demand, and the value of each slice goes up dramatically as supply goes down. The question of the last piece then becomes whether it is worth more or less than the medical cost that results from being slammed in the head with a folding chair.

All in all, it's a very dynamic and complex process.

What planet are you really from? Come on... just tell us.... ?

?

[Adept Havelock]

Originally Posted by Rain Man

It's supply and demand. When the supply of pizza slices is high, they have less value. When the supply is low, they have more value. If there's only one piece left, then it ostensibly has a very high value, which makes the decision of who gets it a weighty one.

Now, to some extent, this is offset by changes in demand. When there are a lot of pieces of pizza, demand is also presumably high because people are hungry. As the supply goes down, so does demand. Therefore, there's an economic self-regulation that takes place.

However, that regulation is not perfectly proportional. For example, if you have two anorexics and 400 pieces of pizza, demand goes down faster than supply, and therefore the value of each piece goes down faster than the supply, so that the "last piece" really has no value (in part because there is no last piece).

On the other hand, if you have two professional wrestlers and only five slices of pizza, the supply goes down much faster than the demand, and the value of each slice goes up dramatically as supply goes down. The question of the last piece then becomes whether it is worth more or less than the medical cost that results from being slammed in the head with a folding chair.

All in all, it's a very dynamic and complex process.

Rain Man clearly holds the Keynesian chair in Pizza Economics at Chiefsplanet U.

[BucEyedPea]

Originally Posted by Adept Havelock

Rain Man clearly holds the Keynesian chair in Pizza Economics at Chiefsplanet U.

I'd say his post was more Austrian, freemarket.

A Keynesian version would be more like: Central bank floods market with extra dollars. Pizza lovers everywhere think they are richer than they actually are, creating an artificially stimulated demand for more pizza. Lots of excess pizza is baked. There is lots of waste,including the extra lonely and single slices of pizza...which appear in pizza parlors everywhere thus seeming less special.

Sooner or later pizza prices climb to deal with the increased demand and ultimately leads to a lower demand making last leftover pieces of pizza appearing more special due to costs. Hence the boom and bust cycles that is automatically built into the Keynesian model but which no one ascribes to being caused by the central bank which is connected to govt debt and deficits from the outset.

Pizza must be freed from this central command type of economy which would regulate the "specialness" of lonely, single,last and leftover slices of pizza.