Freakonomics

The other night we watched 24 Hour Party People, a relatively entertaining film about the Manchester music scene of the 1970s, 1980s, and 1990s. I thought the most interesting idea in it was the excuse that raves died out partly because they were a bad economic model. The club (in this case Hacienda) provided the building, sound system, DJs, lighting, and so on, but nobody bought any drinks because they were all high on ecstasy. So the only people making money were the drug dealers. Of course, this theory was from a guy who paid 35,000 pounds sterling for a conference table. An ugly conference table.