Don,
I have a question unrelated to the current discussion. It relates to concept of diminishing marginal utility as conceived by the Austrian school.
In a previous post, you stated that the reason newspapers are sold in boxes that give the consumers access to multiple newspapers, whereas cans of soda are sold in boxes that deliver them individually, is that the marginal utility of a second newspaper is almost zero. Once the news has been read, a second newspaper usually serves no purpose. However, a second, and third, fourth, etc. can of soda can be stored for future use, given to friends, etc.
Thus, the marginal utility of a second newspaper compared to that of the first newspaper is much lower than the marginal utility of a second can of soda compared to that of the first can of soda.
This statement seems to imply there is a quantitative, not just ordinal, aspect to marginal utility. The difference in marginal utility between the first newspaper and second newspaper is much greater than the difference in marginal utility between the first can of soda and second can of soda. Or put another way, the "slope" of the marginal utility curve (if there is such a thing) tends toward zero much faster for newspapers than for cans of soda.
I thought that the Austrian school did not accept such a notion?
Wildstar |
