There are 2 curves in any market. The demand curve and the supply curve. The supply curve is usually fairly easy to figure out (borderline trivial). The dema

There are 2 curves in any market. The demand curve and the supply curve. The supply curve is usually fairly easy to figure out (borderline trivial). The demand curve on the other hand does very odd things and tries to measure things there is no measurement for. Even economies where there is no real price and there is only a monopoly has to conform to the two curves. Most economic policies fail because of poor forecasting of external items on changes in the demand curve. For example maybe I had an egg for breakfast and that made me feel full for lunch. So I do not want to eat a hamburger at any price for the rest of the week. Yet the demand curve would predict I would buy it at a particular price. Economics a lot of hand wavy predictions. It is good at saying what happened after the fact but usually makes poor predictions. Most sciences would say the model is broken. The Veblen good that you mention is one of those examples. Where raising the price creates a desirability that should not be there. That is because pricing is a signal of scarcity. Some people desire the idea they have something scarce and others dont. Which makes demand curves hard as even the price you pick changes the curve!