Last Year on the Green · April: Splitting the Bills
The idea: equal is one fair way to share a cost, not the only one; agree the rule together before the money is spent, and say your own limit early.
Read it
Who is in this book
- Ada Rules are incentives — design for how people actually behave, with the people who use the place from CommonsForge
- Danya a child of the Green Asks "how do we know?"
- Marcus A budget is a plan for what the money is for, before it arrives from LedgerQuest
- Devon Every yes costs the next-best thing you could have done with that time or money from LedgerQuest
- Tara a child of the Green Listens longest, speaks last
Every recurring character has a short tune, so you can tell who is on stage before a word is said. The tunes play only when you tap, and the Reading Access sound switch turns them off.
The Honest Page
Which parts of this story are true, stretched or made up?
True
- Fair division is the study of how to share things, or costs, among people so that each thinks they got a fair share. There are many different rules, such as equal shares or shares in proportion to use, and which one feels fair depends on the people and the situation. Source
- The economist Elinor Ostrom studied groups that share things, from fisheries to grazing land. One of the patterns she found in groups that manage well is that the people affected by the rules take part in making and changing them. Source
- In the case, three people for four nights and one for two is fourteen person-nights; £560 for fourteen person-nights is £40 each; a four-night stay is £160 and two nights £80; split equally, £560 among four is £140.
Stretched
- In the case, the cottage costs the same however many people stay, and the only question is how to share it. What we simplified: Real holiday bookings often have deposits, cleaning fees and cancellation rules, and people also share food and travel. Those are worth agreeing in advance too, by the same rule or a different one.
Made up
- The cottage, Jess, Mo, Priyanka, Tara's plan and her mum's rule are made up. The ideas of fair division and agreeing a rule in advance are real.
Tara’s sentence
The case stops where Tara speaks. Write the sentence you would have said. It stays on this device.
Kept.
Your sentence lives on this device. Nothing is sent anywhere.
Ring the hammer for someone
Pick this book for someone younger. The link carries only the book, and it will wait for them on the Green.