8to24 t1_iux5wf3 wrote
Reply to comment by Rich_Elderberry5153 in Why a Blue check mark is now $8 on Twitter and Elon Musk's Next Steps - A piece of speculative business non-fiction by BandicootKind705
>Inelastic goods, like gas, are needed and will be bought more or less despite the price.
One makes choices about where the live. That choice influences whether or not they need a car and how much they need to drive. Additionally people decide what type of cars they buy. SUVs and Trucks use a lot more gas than sedans and wagons.
I don't see gas as an inelastic good. People just need to make better choices. If one moves to a suburb that isn't connected to the city they work in via some form of public transportation they are committing themselves to buying a car & lots of gas. If that same person buys a truck or SUV they are committing themselves to buying crazy amounts of gas.
Inelastic would be food, water, electricity, etc. Things people absolutely have to buy.
Rich_Elderberry5153 t1_iuxeoh9 wrote
If you don’t see gas as an inelastic good, you’ve never taken an Econ class, and you are not worth discussing this issue with any further. Gas is the #1 example professors use when discussing inelastic goods
[deleted] t1_iuyp9a4 wrote
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D0KHA t1_iuypggl wrote
Homie is really out here like “so gas is getting expensive…you should probably move somewhere you don’t need as much gas. Have you tried CHANGING CITIES to fix the problem?”
8to24 t1_iuyrhsn wrote
No, I am implying poor choices were made off rip. The cost of gas changes all the time. The current prices were inevitable. They will go down some, let up some, rinse and repeat.
j_mence t1_iv7prbl wrote
While fundamentally you have a good point, reality is a totally different world and one many of us spend our day in and day out experiencing.
The word fair, or people saying "not right" or " if you don't like it don't do it" is not how or what most people base their choices on.
Many individuals are born in rural areas or literally (I'm actually being literal) just outside a city yet unable to afford anything closer and have some type of debt, mortgage, car payment; these are liabilities and unless you bought a 1969 Shelby or a home on a body of water your most likely in debt.
The banking and financial system isn't the most inclusive world either and literally giving out money to everyone was tried and FAILED.
When HUMANS are born anywhere they need to be raised to make it to a point where their prefrontal cortex is able to make real choices; not, am I going to eat what mom and dad made or am I gaming or tick-tocing this really cool Micheal Jackson dance?
Do YOU choose to be born, no. You can choose to live, but being born isn't a choice that ANYONE can or has made...wow, guess what? This means they are, in some way (this is factual), a product of their environment. No matter how much savings, how altruistic an individual may be there are many many factors that go into; " if you don't like the price of gas just move."
I think I explained it well enough. I'm basing this off of many things, but history, facts, evolution, religion (you'd be surprised how much the religious institutions understand and adhere to many of my examples) and just the eye test.
Cheers.
YovngSqvirrel t1_iuxfhd4 wrote
Gas is an inelastic good. You can choose to live somewhere like a city to reduce your personal use of gas, but you would still use the same amount each month, which is what elasticity is talking about. Change in behavior due to price fluctuations. People do not normally move houses due to gas price increases/decreases. And for a majority of people, there is no feasible alternative to driving. The BLS even uses gas as as example of inelasticity.
> Generally, in a recession, income and consumption have a tendency to fall. So despite the economic climate, great changes in price per gallon of gasoline, and the corresponding quarterly variation in dollar expenditures for gasoline, households still consumed the same amount of gasoline. This steady consumption indicates that households did not dramatically change their behavior in response to changes in gasoline prices. Instead of a shared road trip with friends, biking instead of driving, or other consumption changes in response to price increases, people likely continued their gas-consumption habits. Something about gasoline is different than other goods that create this static consumer behavior.
https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-5/using-gasoline-data-to-explain-inelasticity.htm
8to24 t1_iuxgm6u wrote
>You can choose to live somewhere like a city to reduce your personal use of gas, but you would still use the same amount each month,
Tens of millions of people don't own cars. They pay nothing for Gasoline.
YovngSqvirrel t1_iuxi5vg wrote
A good's price elasticity of demand is a measure of how sensitive the quantity demanded is to its price. When the price rises, quantity demanded falls for almost any good, but it falls more for some than for others.
The fact that millions of people don’t use gas has nothing to do with price elasticity. Are you buying more gas when it becomes cheaper? Are you buying less gas when it is expensive? No. So the good is inelastic.
Xeran69 t1_iv1zz7j wrote
That's probably the best way to explain it good shit man.
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