Comments on: Types of goods http://www.sindark.com/2007/09/22/types-of-goods/ Temporarily Torontonian Fri, 10 Feb 2012 16:08:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Milan http://www.sindark.com/2007/09/22/types-of-goods/#comment-81392 Milan Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:54:36 +0000 http://www.sindark.com/2007/09/22/types-of-goods/#comment-81392 <em>Have you fully furnished your place as yet?</em> My place is 'fully furnished' but a lot of the furniture is of poor quality. In particular, my IKEA chairs are very poorly built and now held together with screws I added and gaffer tape. The NY Times article above makes me want to clear out my closet full of stuff in Vancouver: separate out what I genuinely want and sell, give away, or recycle the rest. Have you fully furnished your place as yet?

My place is ‘fully furnished’ but a lot of the furniture is of poor quality. In particular, my IKEA chairs are very poorly built and now held together with screws I added and gaffer tape.

The NY Times article above makes me want to clear out my closet full of stuff in Vancouver: separate out what I genuinely want and sell, give away, or recycle the rest.

]]> By: . http://www.sindark.com/2007/09/22/types-of-goods/#comment-81391 . Wed, 09 Sep 2009 20:52:29 +0000 http://www.sindark.com/2007/09/22/types-of-goods/#comment-81391 Consider our national furniture habit. In an unpublished paper, Schor writes that “anecdotal evidence suggests an ‘Ikea effect.’ ” <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/06/magazine/06self-storage-t.html?pagewanted=3&_r=2" rel="nofollow">We’ve spent more on furniture even as prices have dropped, thereby amassing more of it</a>. The amount entering the United States from overseas doubled between 1998 and 2005, reaching some 650 million pieces a year. Comparing Schor’s data with E.P.A. data on municipal solid waste shows that the rate at which we threw out old furniture rose about one-thirteenth as fast during roughly the same period. In other words, most of that new stuff — and any older furniture it displaced — is presumably still knocking around somewhere. In fact, some seven million American households now have at least one piece of furniture in their storage units. Furniture is the most commonly stored thing in America. Consider our national furniture habit. In an unpublished paper, Schor writes that “anecdotal evidence suggests an ‘Ikea effect.’ ” We’ve spent more on furniture even as prices have dropped, thereby amassing more of it. The amount entering the United States from overseas doubled between 1998 and 2005, reaching some 650 million pieces a year. Comparing Schor’s data with E.P.A. data on municipal solid waste shows that the rate at which we threw out old furniture rose about one-thirteenth as fast during roughly the same period. In other words, most of that new stuff — and any older furniture it displaced — is presumably still knocking around somewhere. In fact, some seven million American households now have at least one piece of furniture in their storage units. Furniture is the most commonly stored thing in America.

]]> By: Sean http://www.sindark.com/2007/09/22/types-of-goods/#comment-24083 Sean Mon, 24 Sep 2007 05:23:33 +0000 http://www.sindark.com/2007/09/22/types-of-goods/#comment-24083 Milan, Very interesting post as usual. I am currently in Toronto where I went to an IKEA and I was not that impressed. I thought it was supposed to be high quality, low price. I was not happy with the quality and yet it was expensive. Why I think it seemed to work for many people was the scale of the whole thing. There was a great many goods on offer and the customers seemed quite diverse. Have you fully furnished your place as yet? Milan,

Very interesting post as usual. I am currently in Toronto where I went to an IKEA and I was not that impressed. I thought it was supposed to be high quality, low price. I was not happy with the quality and yet it was expensive. Why I think it seemed to work for many people was the scale of the whole thing. There was a great many goods on offer and the customers seemed quite diverse.

Have you fully furnished your place as yet?

]]> By: Ben http://www.sindark.com/2007/09/22/types-of-goods/#comment-23965 Ben Sat, 22 Sep 2007 20:12:14 +0000 http://www.sindark.com/2007/09/22/types-of-goods/#comment-23965 It's been a long while since I did any economics, but I thought an inferior good is (or at least can be) still one you spend more on as your income rises, but proportionately less than what your income rises by - e.g. if your income goes up 10% and you spend 5% more on X then X is inferior. As for price changes, then you have both an income and substitution effects coming into play, which may explain Giffen goods. The classic example we were given at school was potatoes in Ireland. Suppose you need four units of food a day and would prefer meat (cost 30) to potatoes (cost 10). If you have 60 units of money to purchase these goods, you'll buy one meat and three potatoes. If the price of potatoes rises to 15, you're forced to buy four potatoes. It’s been a long while since I did any economics, but I thought an inferior good is (or at least can be) still one you spend more on as your income rises, but proportionately less than what your income rises by – e.g. if your income goes up 10% and you spend 5% more on X then X is inferior.

As for price changes, then you have both an income and substitution effects coming into play, which may explain Giffen goods. The classic example we were given at school was potatoes in Ireland. Suppose you need four units of food a day and would prefer meat (cost 30) to potatoes (cost 10). If you have 60 units of money to purchase these goods, you’ll buy one meat and three potatoes. If the price of potatoes rises to 15, you’re forced to buy four potatoes.

]]>