Perspective

 

One Man’s Ceiling Is Another Man’s Floor

It's just apartment house rules

So all you 'partment house fools

Remember: one man's ceiling

Is another man's floor

It may be a floor to you, but it may be a ceiling to someone else.

Perspective matters.  You can't just develop the best solution from your perspective. You do have to consider other perspectives as well.  Take a store for instance.  From the perspective of the store operator, if he could just got rid of the customers, who only misplace items on the wrong shelf, or buy items, he would not have to restock the shelves.  However from the perspective of the customer, if you couldn’t find or buy any items from shelves, you wouldn’t patronize that store and that store would close.  So store operators need customers and customers need store operators.

Economists classify goods as rival ( are charged a price) or non-rival ( are not charged a price); and exclusive ( if I use a good, no one else can use that good) or non-exclusive ( if I use a good then someone else can also use that good).  We are used to dealing with Private goods that are rival and exclusive ( like  pieces of food).  That item has a price and if I consume it, then you can not also consume it.  Cable TV is rival and non-exclusive.  It has a price but my using it in my house, does not prevent you from using it in your house.

The problem is that some goods are rival and exclusive from the perspective of the seller, e.g. a seat at a concert.  But those same seats are rival and non-exclusive from the perspective of the buyer.  The buyer is interested in the concert and will pay for a seat at the concert which is non-exclusive, but is ONLY interested in the concert, not the seat, which is exclusive.  That same seat will not interest the buyer unless that concert is playing.  That seat may be a floor to you, but it is a ceiling to the concert hall operator.  Perspective matters and coming up with solutions that recognize all perspectives is important.