Should Tiger Woods or Brad Pitt mow their own lawns - Essay Example

Should Tiger Woods or Brad Pitt mow their own lawns? No. Tiger Woods and Brad Pitt should not mow their own lawns, even if they are good at mowing.To understand this answer it is necessary to be aware of the economic terms “comparative advantage” and “absolute advantage”. Taylor and Weerapana 2009, p.773, define comparative advantage as “A person with a lower opportunity cost of producing a good than another person has a comparative advantage in that good”. In other words, the concept of comparative advantage points to Tiger Woods and Brad Pitt doing what they are good at, which is playing golf and acting in movies respectively, and making more money, while leaving the mowing of the lawn to professional lawn mowers.

The National Council on Economic Education 1998, p. 118, defines absolute advantage as “A person has an absolute advantage if he or she can produce more of a product with the same amount of resources as another person”. The concept of absolute advantage points to a professional lawn mower mowing the lawn more cost effectively than either Tiger Woods or Brad Pitt. Tiger Woods and Brad Pitt enjoy absolute a advantage in entertaining people through playing golf and acting in movies respectively, and earning more than they would by the time and effort spent on mowing their lawn.

To make this clearer let us look at the example of the famous cyclist Lance Armstrong and his fan mail. Being a cycling champion he is bound to receive fan mail and respond to them. He can do it himself or with the help of a secretary. Lance Armstrong may be a good typist, but he does not enjoy comparative or absolute advantage over his secretary in typing the response letters. He is economically wiser to leave the typing and sending of the responses to the fans to his secretary, while he spends his time and efforts in furthering his professional career in cycling.

Literary ReferencesNational Council on Economic Education. (1998). Focus: Middle School Economics. New York: National Council on Economic Education. Taylor, J. B. & Weerapana, A. (2009). Economics. Sixth Edition. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.