  Turkeynomics offers lessons on rationality  12:54 AM, Nov. 20,
2012  |  Comments   • Filed Under   Thanksgiving is coming soon.
You know what that means. Family, friends and food - lots of
food. If you've been reading this column, you know that
economics can be applied to just about any issue and life
situation; even those you might not think of as being economic
ones. Thanksgiving dinner is another one of those situations.
When you think about Thanksgiving dinner, what do you think
about? How good the food is? How much food there is? Uncle
Fred's shirt buttons straining by the time dinner is over? Many
of us exhibit an alarming lack of self-control when it comes to
turkey and trimmings, but, from a traditional economics
perspective, this yearly gluttony does not make any sense.
Economics assumes that people are rational: they weigh - pun
intended - the costs and benefits of actions and choose those
that have higher benefits than costs.  A growing branch of
economics, called behavioral economics, shakes up