Re: [at-l] New Hampshire Idiots, Volume 2

["Thomas McGinnis" <tmcginnis@ucclan.state.in.us>]

>>> "Jack Tarlin" <baltjack@hotmail.com> 01/13/00 01:28PM >>>
     If there's anyone out there who still feels this way, I urge you to 
check out a story in The Union Leader 
(www.theunionleader.com/articles_show.html?article=5728) which pretty much validates everything I was trying to say.

>>>>>>Sloetoe responds wit' :
Here's the opening sentence from the January 13th article, for those not disposed to actually reading the whole enchilada: "Three local men, carrying little more than a backpack with beer and a cell phone, were found near the summit of Mount Cardigan before dawn yesterday after a search involving more than 30 volunteers." Other facts: the 911 call was placed at 3:29am. They were found, 100 yards off the trail near the summit, at 6:30am. They were not hypothermic; the walk down warmed them up. The volunteers lost work time in their efforts.

OK, let's take that last one: Let's say the average volunteer makes $30,000/year, paid hourly for a 40 hour week, thus makes 30k/52/40= $14.42/hour. Let's say further they lost half a day's pay, $14.42 * 4 hours = $57.69. Let's say there were _only_ 30 volunteers. 30*$57.69 = $1,730.77 in lost wages just amongst the volunteers. Then let's cast our net to the New Hampshire economy (sorry. economists are known to do things like this): Take a typical multiplier of wage earner dollars of something like 25% respent locally 10 times (1.25^10=9.31) and from this little "event," the New Hampshire economy lost (9.31x$1,730.77=) $16,119.05 *just* in lost wages. This does not count the lost "production" at work (widgets not made, aliens/candidates not served, etc.), which would only raise the indirect costs. 

Oops! *Indirect* cost? Certainly! We haven't even counted the direct costs — gas, wearNtear on vehicles and equipment, etc — *nor* have we counted the fixed costs of capital equipment needed to support the required "level" of volunteer SAR readiness. Yowser.

Lastly, and BJack, correct me if I'm wrong (I mean, come on, I'm writing from Hooterville, ferGawdsake), but Cardigan isn't even in the Whites! What will be required when these boys' cousins go bebopping southbound up and away from Zealand Falls? Yeesh.

As an economist, this is a baaaaad way to utilize resources, "volunteered" or not.

At the margin,*
Sloetoe


*"margin" — it's an economist thing. Not a big funny. A small one. Tee. Hee.



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