Monday 15 March 2010

The Four Ways to Spend Money + One More

I ran across this on the 37Signals blog. It's a Milton Friedman thing:

You can spend your own money on yourself. When you do that, why then you really watch out what you’re doing, and you try to get the most for your money.

You can spend your own money on somebody else. For example, I buy a birthday present for someone.
Well, then I’m not so careful about the content of the present, but I’m very careful about the cost.

I can spend somebody else’s money on myself. And if I spend somebody else’s money on myself, then I’m sure going to have a good lunch!

I can spend somebody else’s money on somebody else. And if I spend somebody else’s money on somebody else, I’m not concerned about how much it is, and I’m not concerned about what I get.

Actually he left out a fifth, but then he didn't know about outsourcing companies:

You can spend the client's money on them. When you do that, you spend as little as possible to keep the profits high, and you don't care what the client gets.

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