Bad Ideas #10 and #11 - Completely misunderstanding the concept of barter.

Generally speaking, roommates will share some common furniture and household goods. My roommate moved in here before I did, and bought a lot of these common items - cleaning supplies, toilet paper, trash can, trash bags, etc. I'm guessing he spent like $30 for it all.

So I move in, and all this stuff is bought. I can't think of anything else to buy, so I make a mental note to myself to be courteous and buy the next round of toilet paper and trash bags. In the meantime, I buy some plastic cups for guests.

A week later, while he's asking me for advice on what kind of computer mouse to buy, I tell him to consider the one I had bought recently - I had bought one for around $30.

10. "I don't know what to look for in a computer mouse. Why don't you buy me one, since I bought the toilet paper."

No. That is incorrect. You are asking me to buy a $32 mouse in exchange for you buying $30 worth of stuff to be shared between you and me. In essence, I will be paying $32 for a 50% share of $30 worth of stuff. For those of you who are arithmetically challenged, I would be paying $32 for $15 of toilet paper and trash bags. I tell him no, and he doesn't pursue it further.

Besides, I end up spending like $10 on Drano over the next week because he kept clogging the drain with his boots.

I can't tell whether it's related to the above or not, but shortly afterward my roommate started drinking my beer. I would be buying various beers, usually costing around $7 to $9 for a 6 pack, on Friday nights, and he would inevitably be too lazy to buy his own and take a beer or two of mine. Of course, he's not a complete asshole, and he would offer me a few beers the next day out of whatever he bought.

11. Offering Bud Light in a trade for Sierra Nevada, New Belgium, various expensive microbrews, Franziskaner, etc.

First of all, these beers are not equivalent cost. Second of all, I would rather have $10 worth of good beer rather than $100 worth of brewed piss-water. Why the hell would you think that I find 50 cents worth of piss-water to be worth the same as $1.20 of real beer?

Fortunately for me, he has a 6 pack of Shiner Bock sitting in the refrigerator right now. If it weren't 11 AM on a Sunday morning, I'd probably be drinking it right now.

I can't believe this guy has taken graduate level courses in economics. What kind of crappy college is giving him credit? He admits that he has no knowledge in mathematics or statistics, and has demonstrated a complete lack of common sense in understanding economics (Bad Idea #7 is a prime example, and Bad Idea #3 is kind of similar to the above situation).