Academic

Jay Leno, a free show for the unemployed, and M*A*S*H

By Tung Yin

NBC's late night talk show host Jay Leno decided to put on a free comedy show for unemployed workers (or those just facing hard times) in Detroit, Michigan.  That's pretty admirable; he's actually going out of his way to give something to the much less fortunate.

However, when he found out that some people who got tickets were auctioning them off on eBay, he complained:

Economist Greg Mankiw has covered the economic analysis of Leno's position:

Meanwhile, I'm reminded of an episode of M*A*S*H, set around Christmas time, where Major Winchester -- pursuant to a family custom -- anonymously donates a nice big package of chocolate candy to a nearby South Korean orphanage.  Later, when he finds an American GI eating one of the pieces of candy from the package, he learns that the GI bought the candy on the black market.  Winchester confronts the director of the orphanage, who admits that he sold the candy.  The orphanage director explains that, had he given the candy to the orphans, they would have had a nice treat that would have lasted for one night.  By selling the candy instead, he got enough money to be able to feed the orphans for an entire month.  Suitably chastened, Winchester says that he is the one who's learned something about the Christmas spirit.

Upshot: Winchester had something valuable to donate, and he did.  The orphanage director greatly appreciated Winchester's gesture, but was able to turn the gift into something far more useful for the orphans.  It seems to me that if you replace "chocolate candy" with "Jay Leno performance," and "orphans" with "unemployed workers," the stories sound the same.  Too bad the outcome wasn't.

UPDATE: Something else that occurred to me . . . .

I haven't watched "The Tonight Show" lately, but I've usually enjoyed Jay Leno's shtick.  Yeah, I know that David Letterman is considered more hip and all that, but what can I say?  Indeed, before we left Los Angeles to come to Iowa, I thought about trying to get seats for "The Tonight Show."  If we didn't have kids and we got free tickets to a Leno performance, I'm sure that my wife and I would go.

But we do have kids, so if we got free tickets today, what would we do with them?  To go, we'd have to hire a babysitter, but if the point is to do something for the unemployed, how does it help them to make those kids have to find and pay for a babysitter just to go to a comedy show?

Full post as published by The Yin Blog on March 18, 2009 (boomark / email).