Small Is Beautiful: Economics As If People Mattered

When I was at my absolute poorest, I got sucked into some kind of survival game. The challenge was to survive 7 days on just 50 dollars, and the winner would walk away with a million dollars. As someone who might as well be certified as a professional at being broke, I knew exactly how to survive on next to nothing. That prize money had my name written all over it.

After ten years studying interior design overseas, I came back to my hometown to do work that mattered to the people who raised me. I offered the full package, from site survey to soft furnishings. The materials were chosen by hand. The price was fair to the bone. The town had just gone through a redevelopment. Everyone was getting new units. With the new family policy, every family wanted a third bedroom too. My business was good. Customers from the next county were driving in. Then a girl just back from a city college kicked open my studio with her phone on a livestream and her neighbors at her shoulder. "This is the dishonest one. Look at her. She has been ripping the village off." "In the city, an eighty-square-meter unit can be done for twenty thousand dollars. She is charging eighty." "That's a sixty-thousand-dollar margin. Sixty thousand. Right out of our pockets." The village fell in line behind her. They demanded the difference back. When I refused, they smashed my studio. They beat me into a coma. The pile-on online killed me. When I opened my eyes again, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I would refund every single one of them. And then I would tear out every single thing I had installed. Let's see what twenty thousand dollars actually buys you.

a really good book for you. I hope you like it becuase it tells you a good story. Please read it.

After Jason Yeo, the richest man in the world, discovers he has a year to live, he liquidates his fortune and produces a series of global actions that he hopes will create change. In his pursuit of peace and truth, Yeo addresses such issues as human traffic, nuclear war, and the poverty that imperils the Third World. When Yeo’s actions begin to rattle global power structures, he becomes the target of Deep 6, an underworld intelligence agency working for the Shadow State, a cabal of the wealthy and powerful, whose members make the big decisions on the planet. Will Deep 6 stop Yeo, or will his year run out first?

I had been the biggest pushover in our circle. In the years I had worked as a wedding planner, I had dipped into my own pocket every time a friend got married to make sure she received the very best of everything. A newcomer named Sloane Halliday arrived one day. "30,000 dollars for one wedding? Laurel, that markup is outrageous." A friend tried to smooth things over. "That was already the friends-and-family rate. Venue rental alone cost that much anywhere else." Sloane rolled her eyes. "Friends-and-family rate? Give me a break. "My family ran a wedding supply chain. I knew exactly how this racket worked. "Tell you what. From now on, all of you bring your weddings to me. "I will get you the same specs, real wholesale pricing. Only 500 dollars, all in." The room erupted. "500 dollars? That saved tens of thousands. "We were giving all our weddings to Sloane from now on. "And Laurel, do not take it personally. We go way back. You really should not be pocketing the difference." Pocketing the difference? For every friend whose wedding I had planned, I had pulled every favor I had to make her the most beautiful bride in the room. The top-tier teams I brought in did not even take outside clients. Sure. That was fine with me. If 500 dollars was all it took for a complete wedding, then they were welcome to find out exactly what a 500-dollar wedding looked like.

I was the stingiest rich wife in the city’s high society. I did not spend money on beauty treatments or travel. In fact, I did not even own a single decent outfit or a handbag. Everyone laughed at me. They said I had the fortune of a wealthy family but not the luck to enjoy it. However, what they did not know was that behind closed doors, Arvid Hans, who was famous for his lavish spending, was a hundred times stingier than I was. He piled on gold and jewels to keep up appearances in public. However, with me, he was a miser, refusing to spend a single extra penny. We split every expense down to the last penny. Every meal and every prescription required a receipt and an entry in the ledger. He said this was to help me develop a business mindset. He said that fairness and caution were the keys to a lasting relationship. While other wives were decked out in expensive jewelry, I was dressed simply. He said I was naturally beautiful and did not need such trinkets to enhance my looks. Even our housekeeper was hoarding gold for investment. Yet he kept me from touching a single penny, citing the Hans family’s tradition of being frugal. For three years of marriage, I lived like a devout nun, strictly adhering to the “rules of frugality” he had tailored for me. It was not until Christmas Eve, when I returned a day early from visiting my parents, that I discovered someone else had been living the life of luxury meant for me.