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I'm not sure about that particular effect, but lets assume that you are right. It's a great example of how painfully inelastic demand for oil or oil derived goo
by netsp 17y ago
I'm not sure about that particular effect, but lets assume that you are right. It's a great example of how painfully inelastic demand for oil or oil derived goods (getting to work in your car) is. The way that higher prices will reflect in lower consumption is people not getting to work in the morning. That's a big deal.
- lsc 17y agoOr, maybe they will carpool, or hold their noses and take the bus. where I live, nobody uses the bus, but if you give yourself 2x the time plus an hour, you can get just about everywhere on public transit.
- netsp 17y agoOr move closer to work or buy motorcycles. Point is, it's not like Mac instead of a Windows, it's like margarine instead of butter. Change hurts.
- lsc 17y agoYeah. it sucks to be poor, especially as commodity prices rise. A friend of mine thinks that the commonness of single-ply toilet paper reflects a recent fall in the real standard of living of the common man. I'm not saying it'll be pleasant (especially for the poor) I'm just saying that as the price of oil goes up, there will be less of it bought, if for no other reason than that there are many people who simply can not afford to pay much more than they are paying now. This effect dampens price spikes.