Listen to the podcast clip available here: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/713/made-to-be-broken/act-one-10. (It is about 24 minutes long.)

The speaker in the podcast uses the following quote from law professor Kimberl Crenshaw: "Treating different things the same can generate as much inequality as treating the same things differently."

In this course, we see that the equilibrium of a perfectly competitive market is Pareto efficient.

A. In the situation described in the podcast, in which each performer is given two minutes, if everyone abided by the time limit, would the outcome be Pareto efficient? Do you think it is better or worse for society as a whole that the speaker broke the rule?

B. Next, use a (hypothetical) example of a competitive market in equilibrium to answer the following questions: In this market, are all participants "treated the same"? Is the market outcome Pareto efficient? Is it equitable?

C. As an all-knowing and all-powerful social planner, could you design an outcome that you think would be better for society as a whole? If so, is this outcome Pareto efficient?