The Economics of South Park

What's in your utility function?

Today's Quote of Day on Google's personalized homepage is from the creators of South Park.

"Sometimes what's right isn't as important as what's profitable." -Trey Parker and Matt Stone

He sounds a bit like economist, eh?  It is interesting to note that Matt Stone's father, Gerald Stone is an economist and U of Kentucky graduate students (such as Hypothetical Bias creator, Whitehead) from the mid to late 80s know him from the principles text, Byrns and Stone.  The Parker/Stone quote differs greatly from altruistic behavior that is consistent with optimizing behavior & the business philosophy of the founder of the company Patagonia, Yvon Chouinard but that is whole another post.