Link: http://consumerist.com/384208/whats-the-deal-with-all-this-rice-and-flour-hoarding
Alright so this shows how basic supply and demand shapes into our everyday lives. People are hoarding rice and flour because the supply has been dwindling for quite some time now albeit slowly. The problem has grown to much higher levels though just because retailers can't sell as much as they want to yet the demand is GINORMUS. This is only gonna turn worse in the short run if the perfect competition graph holds true, but as we all know, LIFE is not a damn graph so it doesn't necessarily have to stick to it. Businesses will hoard up stuff to make profits off of individuals versus selling it all off at once just so that they have more a steady flow of cash versus having a "sine wave" type of sales chart.
So there you have it, supply and demand in yo' face. The only problem is that everything is gonna start getting expensive, and with summer approaching its not gonna help the old checkbook (or new if you just got a new checkbook, or is you use cash which is a whole nother elephant to ward off) out much. So what are you crazy nuts going to get out of this?
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7 comments:
Tony this is what I wrote my post on but yours is funnier! I'm concerned because I can't afford things as it is and so I'm not going to be able to buy anything at all this summer! And no one will tip well at work because no one will have money and it will just be a vicious cycle and I will be POOR! AHH!
Well once I finally understood your cultured language, I was scared. I was not aware of this problem before reading your article. This is not good when food is now experiencing a shortage and I love food! Whoever the genius that solves this is going to be rich.
I was not aware of this rice/flour shortage, so this is news to me. i wonder if the markets for rice and flour really are perfectly competitive. i also wonder how retailers hoarding these products affects the percent of profits that goes to the farmers vs. profits for the retailers. grrr on greed
Yes the upcoming summer and next year will be interesting for sure with gas and food practically flying through the rooftops day by day. People are going to have to make a difference with what they consume and buy, we are the only ones that can really make a difference
I love it when real-life examples happen so you can see it's really there and I'm not just making it all up.
Now THAT would be fun. If I had made all this up. And you were all following along. Mwahahahahaaaaaaaaaa...
So do we know the exact cause of the shortage? Sorry if I missed something. Because in my externalities paper I learned that the supply and price of crops that are grown in the same field space as corn (used for ethanol) are suffering due to the ethanol craze. Having to grow more corn means less room to grow other crops, possibly rice or wheat. I'm not sure if this is part of the rice/flour shortage but I thought I'd mention it.
Tan Man.
To answer your question, we are going to get i higher bill for food or we are going to all go on the Atkins Diet so we don't have to by this stuff anymore. So much for relying on wheat and rice as cheap food to feed everyone.
I like dave's question. perhaps its caused by everyones ethanol craze. If that land is being used up for corn you can't plant as much wheat, meaning there is less of it. The supply will shift left and prices for wheat will resultanly be higher.
So now we'll all be driving around our ethanol cars while we starve to death.
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