There's a concept in microeconomics called "Deadweight Loss." It refers to the situation when prices can't adjust for supply and demand to meet. For example, a government-mandated price ceiling that leads to shortages; or a monopoly situation that prevents competitors from offering the same product at a lower price. It's considered a "deadweight" loss because there are transactions that rational market participants would have liked to execute but are for some reason prevented from engaging in freely, thus leading to an unforced reduction in a nation's gross national product.

The point I would like to make is that, in my opinion, the purest form of Deadweight Loss is imposed on society by the forced practice of matching socks. No one wants to have to match their socks - I sure as hell don't - but as a people, we have decided to punish via ridicule those who don't conform to this social contract.

If instead, we were all to agree that it didn't matter, that mismatched socks is an admirable fashion statement, we'd save dozens of hours per person per year. If we could rid ourselves of this constraint, then we as Americans alone would gain over a billion people-hours per year. And those hours could be put toward more productive uses, like, I don't know, building nuclear power plants.