Weather Advisory for Tuesday 02-13-07

Winter Weather ADVISORY: Tuesday: 1 am until 1 pm
The hour is upon us. As students of economics, tonight, we are faced with a decision that touches both on positive and normative economics. Our decision is whether or not to listen to what our local news resources are telling us about tomorrow’s weather forecast. In listening to our news sources we might reluctantly have to miss the exam in Economics 350, which would be a trade off that included multiple different points of identity.
As can be read on the WTAP website (http://www.wtap.com/breakingnews/5745461.html) the city of Marietta is, indeed, no longer within a state of winter weather watch, but winter weather advisory. This means that tomorrow our city will be seeing snow, sleet and freezing rain all before the early afternoon hours. The Red Cross website (http://www.redcross-cleveland.org/fileshare/pdf/2006%20Winter%20Release.pdf) warns us to “stay indoors, except in absolute emergencies.” They also have a “to do” task list of things that one should have in case of different emergency situations: water, food, first aid, clothing, bedding, tools, emergency supplies, etc. This one phenomenon, winter weather preparedness, is an important topic of positive and normative economics.
People act differently in states of emergency than they would otherwise, and because of this known discrepancy in the behavioral norm a new market opens up. So here we have profit motives incorporated with these weather advisories that actually help to bring something that perhaps without the field of economics was once a nonmarket issue very much into the focus of our global and domestic marketplace.
The question still remains: shall we as students take the risk of attending class on Tuesday morning at 9:30 am which will be right around the middle section of this snow and sleet storm we will be in? One trade off that immediately comes to my mind is the value of my car and if the 15 minute commute to school and the test I will take when I arrive will be worth the downside of what could become my winter weather fate.