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JD Champagne's avatar

Adam Smith smiles upon us.

The decentralized spontaneous order we see at Thanksgiving dinner mirrors that of other "cultural" holidays, such at Valentine's and Halloween. It's why it always sticks in my craw when a town or city "reschedules" trick-or-treating.

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Jadrian Wooten's avatar

Perhaps the college student equivalent is doubling up on Halloweekend when Halloween lands in the middle of the week?

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Mr. Larsen's avatar

Wish me good luck. I took this awesome email and put it through AI to create a presentation version of this article. It's awesome. I even asked for a great image of the Thanksgiving Committee arguing over what to make how much to make and debating over the National Menu. Hilarious! Thanks again and keep these coming!

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Jadrian Wooten's avatar

Please share over an email! I'd love to see what you were able to create.

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Mr. Larsen's avatar

https://claude.ai/public/artifacts/c4663984-4cd7-4645-9991-6d6f7b67be41 Here's the link. I also showed most of the 2 videos you added and I cannot seem to send the Thanksgiving Committee picture. Let me try this Google Doc. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1kVDbOGJ5Zrk8-ivUsDNcPe1AjXnQcKCwoRfwbS4CWHw/edit?usp=sharing I hope that works.

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John Quiggin's avatar

This isn't really Hayek, more Schelling. Hayek's emphasis was on the way the price mechanism produces spontaneous order. That explains why there are enough turkeys to meet the demand. But the choice of turkey, rather than chicken or pork reflects convergence on a salient point. Same for Christmas trees, valenintes etc. Everyone (roughly) wants to dp whatever everyone else is doing, and turkey was a salient option when these norms were established (in nearly all cases, in the second half of the 19th century)

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Jadrian Wooten's avatar

Good catch. I wanted to emphasize how prices were helping move products around, but ultimately dropped it to focus on the bigger concept of spontaneous order.

I appreciate the note providing more context for others.

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francisco's avatar

green bean casserole no jadrian noooo

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Jadrian Wooten's avatar

Crunchy onions mixed with creamy sauce? 🤌🏻

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Abdullah Al Bahrani's avatar

Great post. I especially appreciate this one because I watched you work on it in Tampa, plus it is a neat topic. I will be having a Tomahawk Steak.

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Jadrian Wooten's avatar

I'm glad you got to see the chaos that goes on in my head when I write these.

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