If there is one person to blame for economists'habit of commenting on everyhing,it is Gary Becker,who died on May 3rd.Not content with studying the world's economies,he was the first prominent economist to apply economic tools to all aspects of life.He revealed that people are often purposeful and rational in their decisions,whether they are changing jobs,taking drugs or divorcing their spouses.This insight,and the work that followed from it,eamed him a Nobel prize in 1992.No less an eminence than Milton Friedman declared in 2001 that Mr Becker was"the grealest social scientist who has lived and worked in the last half-century".At the heart of Mr Becker's work was the view that"individuals maximise welfare as they conceive it."Welfare need not mean income;it could derive from the pleasure of selflessness.
经济学家们习惯于对一切事情都发表意见，若要将这嗜好归功于一人，这个人便是已于5月3日辞世的加里·贝克尔。不满足于仅仅研究世界经济，贝克尔是第一个将经济学方法应用到生活各个方面的著名经济学家。他揭示：无论是换工作，嗑药或与配偶离婚，人们往往是有目的、理性地作出决定。正是由于此种见解以及其后一系列围绕它的研究，贝克尔赢得了1992年的诺贝尔奖。声名卓著的米尔顿·弗里德曼在2001年称贝克尔是“过去半个世纪以来最伟大的社会科学家”。贝克尔研究的核心认为“个体总是将他们所认为的福利最大化”。福利不一定意味着收人，它可能源自大公无私的满足感。
