I will go into this review saying that I've always had a different outlook on economics than most people around me. I calculate all of my purchases based on cost per use, and buy accordingly (I get the book budget because J has the whopping DirecTV bill - so I get as much $$ for my own entertainment). For example, if I want to buy a $50 purse, I have to think about how often I'll use it - daily for a year would make it worth $0.13 per day. Anything under a $1 per use is an immediate win. $95 sneakers, used for 650 miles is about $0.15 per mile, and I find that a good deal as well. What I'm troubling over tat the moment is a $50 waffle iron, that I will only use about 4 times a year - it will take me 12 years to get that down to a $1 per use. Do I have $50? Absolutely! Can I just spend it because I want a waffle iron... no. Best value in my home is the $5 silver Old Navy flip that I bought in 2003, which are worn roughly every day, and cost me about $0.0017 per use and falling! I also look at rice tags and consider Kiva funds - $25 loan to help a small entrepreneur in the world build their business. My thoughts generally run like this - "Wow, I really need new work pants, but $48... I could give two Kiva loans for that." But I digress...

The Price of Everything was an enjoyable book written in almost layman's terms. By pg 4 it had me hooked as it discussed the cost benefits of dumping trash in third world countries - because...dumping carcinogens into the field of a man who won't live long enough to get cancer is better than the cost of letting a first world person (who will live long enough) actually get cancer. This came from a memo from the World Bank in 1992. Yes, I am disgusted that I just wrote that down, but also see the logic, awful as it is.

There were many topics covered in the book - everything from the expected cost of gas vs. CO2 emissions to the unusual thought that our US pricing bubble was caused by Chinese parents trying to save as much as possible to buy a bride for their sons, now that roughly 30 out of every 100 Chinese men has no woman to marry, due to female infanticide over the last few decades. A stretch, but interesting food for thought. There was even a paragraph describing how English food, which everyone will admit is terrible, may have been a product of the early industrialization that moved English into cities, before there were appropriate technologies to mass-produce and keep fresh foods.

My favorite section was on the Price of Women, which had a lot of historical and anthropological data to assist in the economics of the value of women. I particularly enjoyed the section on women's value now that we have saturated the workforce (hint - intelligent women who are primary earners have the highest appeal) and how that has impacted the traditional family unit. Fascinating!

Initially I was feeling 5 stars with this book, but it dragged a bit in the Price of Culture section, and ended on a typical housing crisis/future environment section. Still, I'm always a fan of a book with 50 pages of notes at the end.

Recommended for anyone who is interested in economics, or enjoyed any of Malcolm Gladwell's books, Freakonomics, or Guns, Germs, and Steel.