Okay, just as I finished posting my last price floor comment I started looking at the different sites that Dr. Tufte has listed to the left. And what I found was a better example of the effects of price floor on buyer, seller, and even politicians. (I don’t think you can comment on your own post, so I am posting again). I found it on The Angry Economist site, and after reading this I too am angry. The link took me to an article written by Walter Williams, the title is "Minimum Gasoline Prices."
Now I am not sure that statutory minimums are the same as the price floors we learned about in class, however after reading the article they seem pretty similar, if not the same. Anyway, in this article Williams talks about how these taxes in the various states are hurting the buyers of gas and helping politicians and sellers. I can’t believe how well this went along with our discussion in class (6/9/2004). Wow, can you believe it…economics really can be found in the “real” world?
1 comment:
Yeah! Someone noticed that economics "really can be found in the 'real' world".
I actually didn't know that there were "statutory minimums" for gasoline prices in some states. I'm not perfectly clear on the details, but this sounds like a price floor to me. However, price floors only make a difference if they are high enough to by binding, and I'm not sure that is the case here.
Currently, the school that is using blogging the most to teach economics is George Mason University (in the Virginia side of suburban Washington D.C.). Walter Williams is a faculty member there, but does not blog - he has had a newspaper column on and off for about 20 years. You may have also seen him on 20/20 - John Stossel often uses him to explain economic ideas.
P.S. You can comment on your own post. Most people do this to reply to others comments, but you could also do it just to add more thoughts to your original post. (I'd give you credit for either one).
Post a Comment