Externalities: After Dinner Conversation, #64

By Geoffrey Hart

Synopsis - A traveling wise man gives each customer the service they need, and teaching his apprentice a valuable lesson about externality.

After Dinner Conversation is a growing series of short stories across genres to draw out deeper discussions with friends and family. Each story is an accessible example of an abstract ethical or philosophical idea and is accompanied by suggested discussion questions.

Podcast discussions of this short story, and others, is available on iTunes, Spotify, Stitcher, and Youtube.

• Language: English
• Publisher: After Dinner Conversation
• Release date: Aug 12, 2020
• ISBN: 9798201027124

Book preview

Externalities

After Dinner Conversation Series

"In economics, an externality is the cost or benefit that affects a party who did not choose to incur that cost or benefit."—James Buchanan and W. Craig Stubblebine

THE LIBRARY ROLLED heavily into town, bearing its cargo of knowledge mundane, esoteric, and somewhere in between. Its ancient axles creaked as it slowed, executed a graceful turn through the caravanserie, and came to rest, facing the town square and the well that travelers used. The horses, dust coating their sweaty flanks, snorted in anticipation. Willem waited for his apprentice, Thomen, to descend, then leaned heavily on the youth’s shoulder as he eased himself to the ground, wincing at the pain in his hips. Once both feet were firmly on the ground, he stretched mightily, his joints emitting an alarming series of crackling noises.

"Ahhh... that’s better. Fetch me some water. I’m feeling drier than Epicurus, and half as lively." He kicked at the dust to emphasize his point.

The youth grabbed the tin bucket that hung from the wagon’s bench seat, behind the buckboard, and ran to the well. By the time he’d returned, Willem had unfurled their banner, which lay limp in the motionless air. While Thomen had been away, a discreet crowd had gathered, curious to learn what the wagon had brought them. The sage took a long drink from the bucket, then poured the remainder over his head. Thanks. He ruffled the youth’s hair, then gestured at the banner with a cocked thumb. Thomen seized the dangling end, nimbly swarmed up the back of the wagon, and tied the banner’s end to the cord they’d attached there for this purpose. In letters two feet tall, it read: Library. Below, in lettering you had to approach to read, it said Master Sage Willem, Oikonomist. Knowledge revealed, affordable rates.

Without being asked, Thomen unhitched the horses and re-hitched them to one of the many posts