A Top Ten List For Thanksgiving

Through a top ten list for Thanksgiving, behavioral economics can explain our holiday meal.

Thanksgiving Top Ten List

10. Defaults

• As a default, the traditional Thanksgiving menu is easier to select than a new meal.

  9.  Confirmation Bias

• Confirming our bias, the meal tastes good because we expect it to be good.

  8. Choice Architecture

• The “architecture” of the menu skyrockets our calorie consumption to over 3,000 calories.

  7. Diminishing Marginal Utility

• The first bites are the best bites. After that we get less extra pleasure.

  6. Temporal Discounting

• Thanksgiving dinner gives us considerable short-term pleasure. But there is a long-term cost.

From here, traditional economic ideas can take over:

  5. Future Expectations 

• Some of us demand less during dinner because we look forward to leftovers.

  4. Complementary Goods

• Perfect with turkey, cranberry sauce and stuffing have huge demand.

   3. Cost

• It takes approximately 1.8 hours of work for someone that earns an average U.S. wage of $29.81 (BLS/private payrolls) to pay $58.08 for this year’s Thanksgiving meal for 10.

   2. Inflation

• Displaying success in the war against inflation, at $61.17, dinner for 10 is down from last year’s $64.05.

   1. The Invisible Hand

• Through the market system, the invisible hand makes sure that we produce and distribute many millions of Thanksgiving birds. At nearly 34 million this year, the number of turkeys tjat come from Minnesota make it our top turkey producing state.
• At the same time, we send many turkeys beyond our borders. With turkey production down this year, the following 2021 numbers could be high but they convey an accurate trade picture.:

Our Bottom Line: Happy Thanksgiving!

Enjoy the meal.

(And please, let us know what you would include on your Thanksgiving economic top ten list.)

Today’s post is an updated version from last year.