Weighing the cost of shutting down production

By Jamie Rieger
Like many people on Saturday, part of my day was spent mowing my lawn while the going was good. For me, it was a matter of having free time to do it with my electric mower when the grass wasn’t too wet. If the grass had gotten any longer, I would have had to rent a goat or borrow a machete.
As I was pushing the mower through row after row I noticed a whole lot of ladybugs being disrupted by my work. I’m not sure if it was because the grass was still moist in places or what, but I happened to see a lot more than I normally do.
Now, what do I do? Besides being cute as buttons, ladybugs are very beneficial to our environment by ridding us of aphids and other tiny critters. So, was I creating a negative footprint on my environment by mowing my back yard? I needed to put some serious thought into this one.
I shut down production (needed to cool the motor on my electric mower anyway), grabbed my bottle of water, sat down, and decided I needed to conduct an informal environmental impact study.
Do I stop mowing because I may harm a critter so beneficial to my environment? (Who wants a bunch of aphids in their back yard?)
If I stop mowing, the grass is only going to grow longer and the work will still need to be done, but will be more costly in sweat equity…Not to mention, become an unsightly premise and none of us want that!
As dark clouds started rolling in above me, I knew I had a quick decision to make before the rain put a hold on my mowing for more days. I took another chug of water and got back to business. “Get ‘er done!”
Not wanting to harm a ladybug, but I saw I had no alternative. My cost-benefit analysis showed that shutting down production would only prove to be more costly down the road while the ladybugs would still have green grass for nibbling and would continue to keep the aphid population down and I avoid receiving an unsightly premises fine from the bylaw officer.
So, I finished my mowing, hoping no ladybugs got in my way in the process.

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