« Poor Vitter | Main | Westen and the Prospect »
July 10, 2007
Smart For One, Dumb For All Problems
"The heat is bad, yes, but it's also the humidity," complains Matt. "I'll always remember this July 12 breakfast with Chuck Schumer from last summer for exactly how uncomfortable everyone (the Senator included) looked in our jackets and ties and remembering who, exactly, we were all trying to impress by dressing like that?"
This is what the economist Robert Frank calls a "smart for one, dumb for all" problem. Given that Matt is having breakfast with a major politician, and everyone in the room will be wearing jackets and ties, it's very smart for him to adopt a blazer and some neckwear. Same goes for every other individual in the room. But if Schumer (or someone of significant enough standing) had sent out an e-mail suggesting that Weather.com said July 12th will be 472 degrees, and everyone should wear shorts and a T-shirt, everyone would have been better off. You can't unilaterally opt-out of the dress code, but communal welfare would be improved if a collective decision to dress down was made. Life, in fact, has a lot of problems where the group incentives point in the opposite direction as the individual incentives. This may or may not have broad policy implications. And I may or may not be writing about them for this weekend's LA Times.
July 10, 2007 in Economics | Permalink
Comments
Well, unless Jessica Valenti showed up, and created a huge controversy by dressing down.
Posted by: Steve | Jul 10, 2007 11:36:48 AM
Part of the problem is, I think, that people tend to overestimate the hazards of noncomformity with expectations. If Matt had shown up dressed down with everyone else in ties, so what? Would he really have been thereafter shunned from polite society?
Posted by: Glenn | Jul 10, 2007 11:55:43 AM
Which sheds some light on the FT item Mark Kleiman mentions.
Posted by: SamChevre | Jul 10, 2007 12:27:00 PM
You can unilaterally opt out of the dress code... if you have the panache to pull it off. I think suit and tie dressing is hanging, well, by a thread in the arenas where it still has some power. Lots of people have abandoned it (especially shirt and tie; jacket over light knit dressing for summer seems fine for most occasions), and I suspect the combination practicality, casualness, and ease will work in favor of relaxed standards. Leave it to fusty, "that's the way we've always done it" types in DC to resist every attempt at change, but that steam pit is probably the place where lighter dressing will make the most sense.
Posted by: weboy | Jul 10, 2007 12:47:40 PM
My personal preference is a t-shirt for every occasion, with a blazer if the situation calls for it.
Posted by: Rich | Jul 10, 2007 1:06:50 PM
Somewhere between the wool pinstripes/Brooks Bros. shirts/rep ties lineup and the drawerful of ratty old logo t-shirt-and-shorts getups there lies a vast and mostly unexplored sartorial region sometimes referred to as resort wear, which is what you'll find elegant business people in South Florida and the Caribbean wearing: Linens, unconstructed and unlined jackets over sea-island-cotton t's, guayaberas, vintage seersucker, aloha shirts, basketweave loafers with no socks, lots of light colors.
I borrow Robert's Panama hat all the time.
If you think ties and jackets are uncomfortable in the summer, pity the gentler sex--we get to wear underwire bras, nylon stockings, and stiletto-heeled pumps with our office outfits. And then we're expected to waltz backwards.
Posted by: litbrit | Jul 10, 2007 1:08:12 PM
The idea of the collective action problem is among the most useful ones I've ever taught to undergraduates.
Posted by: Neil the Ethical Werewolf | Jul 10, 2007 1:30:08 PM
Ezra, only you are geeky enough to be coy about whether you are writing an op-ed on public policy.
Neither compliment nor an insult. Just an observation.
Posted by: Joseph | Jul 10, 2007 1:40:21 PM
litbrit, women can wear sleevless shirts with lower cut necks, skirts, and short sleeve jackets, and short sleeved tops are equivalent level of dress to men wearing odd jackets and trousers. And most women have a higher preferred temperature than men.
Posted by: yoyo | Jul 10, 2007 2:01:29 PM
I always thought it was interesting that politicians in Israel were almost always shown wearing open-neck shirts with no tie.
Posted by: Jeff | Jul 10, 2007 2:16:06 PM
In 2005, the British civil service finally decreed that men didn't have to wear ties. Which isn't to say that most of the higher ups don't still do so, which of course puts pressure on their underlings to do the same in order to appear "the right sort".
Posted by: reuben | Jul 10, 2007 3:58:03 PM
Japan's "Cool Biz" campaign is interesting and relevant to this discussion:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cool_Biz_campaign
The concern was, as I understand it, that if they only raised the AC temperature people would feel pressured to continue dressing formally and simply put up with the discomfort, but by making the cool dresscode part of the system they were able to get people to dress down and stay comfortable while keeping the temperature higher and thus reducing CO2 emissions by 460,000 tons.
Posted by: Galen | Jul 10, 2007 3:59:43 PM
Most of the business community has abandoned ties, at least outside of DC and NY. I work in the midwest, and cities like Chicago, Cleveland, etc., it's only government employees, lawyers and bankers who wear ties. Most of the CEO/CFO types business casual, maybe with a jacket.
Posted by: joe | Jul 10, 2007 4:32:58 PM
You can unilaterally opt out of the dress code... if you have the panache to pull it off.
For some reason I read that as "if you have the pancho to pull it off." Which I suppose is in fact one way to opt out of a dress code.
Posted by: Xanthippas | Jul 10, 2007 4:57:30 PM
Perhaps DC is particularly conservative because the influential people there come from all over the country and keep changing regularly, making it harder for the mores to adjust to what would make sense. If you were dressing for a meeting with Schumer, and thought of him as someone from DC, you might think that he'd be more reasonable than to think that everyone should wear a coat and tie in the beastly DC summer. But because he's from NY, you play it safe. Of course, this is a uniquely DC sort of problem.
Posted by: Tyrone Slothrop | Jul 10, 2007 5:10:04 PM
If you think ties and jackets are uncomfortable in the summer, pity the gentler sex--we get to wear underwire bras, nylon stockings, and stiletto-heeled pumps with our office outfits.
All I can say litbrit (after a deep breath) is whatever office you work in, I'd rather be there. :) I picture lots of cool mini-Joan Crawfords... mostly I find women doing the comfortable cami and flat sandals in summer, no hose. which seems infinitely more comfy than suit and te.
Posted by: weboy | Jul 10, 2007 5:35:56 PM
weboy, I should have added that women wear additional things on top of the bras and stockings, Ms. Palfrey's employees notwithstanding :)
In truth, I write at home most days, and rather enjoy an excuse to dress up once or twice a week. No such luck when I was at the ad agency, though. The art department got to wear jeans; copywriters and multitaskers had to look good so that clients would throw money at us, enabling our boss to keep the lights on for another month.
Posted by: litbrit | Jul 10, 2007 7:40:19 PM
In the South, there's a tradition of having a dressed-down code for summer. I remember how irate I was at a bank I worked at when they allowed men to ditch jackets and ties in the summer, but neglected to let women go without hose. Pantyhose are demonic and should be banned outright.
Posted by: Amanda Marcotte | Jul 10, 2007 10:04:35 PM
Amanda: yes.
Posted by: litbrit | Jul 10, 2007 10:54:01 PM
"This may or may not have broad policy implications."
That was a joke, right? I guess I'll have to wait until you write or don't write your editorial.
Posted by: Declan | Jul 11, 2007 12:31:45 AM
In my office, we are debating the merits of open toe sandals and I am wondering if I really could pull off a sarong.
Posted by: socal | Jul 11, 2007 3:19:31 AM
kaufen cialis - http://www.uxnet.org/contact.php - kaufen viagra
kaufen cialis
koop viagra
kaufen viagra
kaufen levitra
koop cialis
kaufen cialis
koop viagra
kaufen viagra
kaufen levitra
koop cialis
kaufen cialis
koop viagra
kaufen viagra
kaufen levitra
koop cialis
Posted by: kaufen cialis | Jul 28, 2007 12:16:09 PM
