At the request of Alex and Meghan, re: last week’s post on
Social Security, I have decided to lay out some important
economic principles in a format you may recognize and
understand. Join me for today’s lecture in lolcatnomics. SUPPLY
AND DEMAND Nothing in life comes for free. Everything worth
having costs money or the sweat of your brow. And even if
Stephen Hawking discovered instant psychic cold fusion tomorrow,
enabling every human being to turn anything into anything else
with a thought, time would still limit our desires. The theory
of supply and demand models the intersection of wants, resources
and what we can willingly pay. You learn supply and demand in
Econ 101; it’s fairly simple. There are years worth of theories
and details that complicate the basics of supply and demand
further (demand elasticity, menu costs, etc). But nothing you
learn later on invalidates this basic principle. If we both want
the same dish of food, we must come to some accord. Your two
takeaways from this: (1) Nothing Comes Fr