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0 pointsWalterBright3y ago0 comments

> modern companies will always try to give you the least amount of value for the highest price the market will bear

Modern consumers will always try to pay as little as possible for the highest amount of value they can.

The proper term for this is The Law of Supply and Demand. It's how markets work.

BTW, your anecdote illustrates why making the effort to learn some math while in grade school is worthwhile.

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jorvi3y ago· 2 in thread

Supply and demand presumes that I would have wanted something else than Fanta - since I (and presumably others) did not, Fanta had market power :).

As an aside, the example would be even more dramatic with non-sugar, where the 0.5L bottle is €1.88, but the 1L bottle is €1.95, due to both the price premium of ‘convenient size’ and ‘healthy alternative’ being stacked.

WalterBrightOP3y ago

> Supply and demand presumes that I would have wanted something else than Fanta

That's not how S&D works. S&D is in-play even if Fanta had a monopoly. Even if the prices were set by the government. Governments have tried every scheme imaginable to repeal the law of S&D, but they never work.

BTW, I gave up all soda about 15 years ago. It took about a year to finally stop craving it. I no longer have any desire for it.

Besides the health issues, it has saved me a ton of money in aggregate.

jorvi3y ago

> A firm with market power chooses a point on the demand curve that it faces. It sets a price as a markup over marginal cost and then produces enough to meet demand at that price. A firm with market power does not take the price as given and then determine a quantity to supply. In fact—strictly speaking—there is no such thing as a supply curve when a firm has market power.

Soda for me is a guilty pleasure, like a good barbecue, or a bottle of red wine. But I appreciate the heads-up!

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