Changes

:Fixed costs can be easily identified by seeing what the total costs are when the output is zero. Variable cost are identified as the costs that help increase your output.  (Leonard)

:Fixed costs can be easily identified by seeing what the total costs are when the output is zero. Variable cost are identified as the costs that help increase your output.  (Leonard)

:... An example of a variable cost is taxes.  (Timothy)

:... An example of a variable cost is [[taxes]].  (Timothy)

2.  The Lecture mentioned how a prior student in this course is paying her way through college by working as a waitress in a fancy Manhattan restaurant.  Suppose her boss told her one day, "We were profitable last month.  To increase our profits next month, I'm going to double our number of waitresses so that we can serve more people!"  But our former economics student told him that his plan would fail because there is _____________ returns of scale in the restaurant, because more waitresses would result in more wasted time talking to each other and waitresses getting in the way of each other.

2.  The Lecture mentioned how a prior student in this course is paying her way through college by working as a waitress in a fancy Manhattan restaurant.  Suppose her boss told her one day, "We were profitable last month.  To increase our profits next month, I'm going to double our number of waitresses so that we can serve more people!"  But our former economics student told him that his plan would fail because there is _____________ returns of scale in the restaurant, because more waitresses would result in more wasted time talking to each other and waitresses getting in the way of each other.

:I think this is possible, but not necessarily true. Marriage alone does not actually guarantee anything. Marriage would probably lead to a greatly efficient division of labor when the spouses fill the traditional roles: husband primarily making money, and wife helping to educate the kids and take care of the house. However if there is animosity between the spouses over these roles (this might have the same effect as transaction costs!) the efficiency will be impaired. But if the spouses are agreed to these roles (absence of transaction costs) then the division of labor will be extremely efficient. (Addison)

:I think this is possible, but not necessarily true. Marriage alone does not actually guarantee anything. Marriage would probably lead to a greatly efficient division of labor when the spouses fill the traditional roles: husband primarily making money, and wife helping to educate the kids and take care of the house. However if there is animosity between the spouses over these roles (this might have the same effect as transaction costs!) the efficiency will be impaired. But if the spouses are agreed to these roles (absence of transaction costs) then the division of labor will be extremely efficient. (Addison)