this post was submitted on 21 Jun 2024
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Science Memes

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Economics (mander.xyz)
submitted 4 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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[–] [email protected] 69 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Yep, graphing calculators are a forced necessity for school, therefore they can charge anything they want and people will still buy them. This kind of artificial demand causes extreme price inelasticity and is capitalism at its worst.

Same deal with university books, you are forced to buy them so they cost hundreds of dollars, when they could easily be sold at a profit for a quarter of the cost.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 4 months ago (1 children)

And why there's a "new" version every year that just moves things around...

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

But there aren't 'new' graphing calculators being required and they don't get worn out that easily. There's a relatively stable amount of people who need one at any given time, so honestly I'd have expected the second hand market to have crashed the market more than it has. There should honestly be multiple times over more graphing calculators in circulation than there is a need for them.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 4 months ago

Yup, free market only incentives competition when it's actually free. Demand monopolys are just as bad as supply ones.