What Do Economists Have in Common With Garbage?

Photo: Editor B

A few weeks back, I upset many people when I posed the question “How are prostitutes and rice alike?” You’ll have to read that old post to understand why I would ask that particular question.
I was accused by those posting comments of being insensitive, misogynistic, and worse. The people criticizing me probably do not have a sense of humor, but just in case they do, here is the latest contest. Whoever comes up with the most creative answer (as judged by me and my crack team at the Becker Center) to the following question wins Freakonomics schwag:

What do economists have in common with garbage?

I know it is a horrible, unforgivable thing to objectify any human being (even an economist) by comparing him or her to an inanimate object. And to compare economists to garbage, well that obviously means that I think all economists are garbage, including myself. I’m sure that tears will be in the eyes of all of my colleagues when they hear how I have demeaned them with this insensitive comparison.
So let’s get the fun started.