DISCOUNT CARD
Dear
Economist,
An offer recently came up for me to buy, for ￡50, a discount card that halves the bill at many London restaurants. Three friends agreed to contribute equally to the cost and go out to a favourite restaurant, knowing that we would save more than this.
I got the card and booked the restaurant. Everything went fine until the end of an excellent meal. We had saved ￡58. But the other three only grudgingly handed over their ￡12.50 to me.
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They felt they had ended up just buying me a free card. I thought the expectation was that since I went to the trouble of setting it up, and they had saved money, they would thank me for my efforts.
Martin Haigh, London
Dear Mr Haigh,
You have only yourself to blame both for being so vague about the terms of the deal and for being so niggardly when you divided the gains.
After they paid you for the meal and the card, each of your friends saved ￡2 and the trouble of booking a restaurant, while you saved ￡52, of which ￡50 went towards your discount card. It is true that that is a gain for all of you, but it is an uneven gain.
Experiments in economic psychology have shown that most people would rather have no deal at all than accept a tiny gain while watching a fat cat guzzle the cream. Had you been a stranger rather than a friend, your dining companions would have simply refused your outrageous demands.
You should have been both more specific and more generous.
Telling your friends you planned to charge them ￡50 just for booking a restaurant would at least have spared you all this embarrassing evening.
好朋友如何明算账
亲
爱的经济学家：
最近，有人向我兜售一种打折卡，价值50英镑，在伦敦很多餐馆可以享受半价优惠。我的3个朋友同意帮我分摊买卡的费用，然后一起去大家特别喜欢的餐馆美餐一顿，因为我们知道，我们节省的成本肯定会高于买卡的费用。
于是我买下了这张卡，并预定了一家餐馆。我们享用了一顿精美的菜肴。在结账之前，一切都挺好。这顿饭，我们总共节省了58英镑。但是，其他3人非常吝啬地每人只给了我12.5英镑。
他们觉得，他们顶多帮我分摊买卡的费用。而我认为，既然我费心张罗，而且他们省了钱，那么，他们应该犒劳我的努力。
马丁?海埃，来自伦敦。
亲爱的海埃先生：
这一切都只能怪你自己。谁让你们的交易约定如此含糊？谁让你在划分好处的时候如此小气？
如果你的朋友和你分摊餐费和买卡的费用，那么，他们每人会节省2英镑，并且省却预定餐馆的麻烦，而你则将节约52英镑，其中50英镑就是你得到那张打折卡。没错，你们所有人都得到了好处，但这样显然不平均。
经济心理学的实验早已证明，多数人宁可不做交易，也不愿自己接受一个小小的好处，而让别人拿到大头。如果你不是他们的朋友，而只是一个陌生人，那么，与你一同就餐的人会直截了当拒绝你的无耻要求。
你的交易约定应该更加明确一点，而且，你也应该更加大方一点。
提前告诉你的朋友，你打算为你预定餐馆而向他们收取50英镑的费用，这样，你至少不会得到一个让你为难的夜晚。
