Common Sense and Wonder on Unintended Consequences
This from our friends at Common Sense and Wonder:
Unintended Consequences
Further evidence that when an item that consumers demand is banned that a black market will immediately spring up to satisfy the wishes of the people (from Best of the Web):
The candy removal plan, according to students at Austin High, was thwarted by classmates who created an underground candy market, turning the hallways of the high school into Willy-Wonka-meets-Casablanca.
Soon after candy was removed from vending machines, enterprising students armed with gym bags full of M&M's, Skittles, Snickers and Twix became roving vendors, serving classmates in need of an in-school sugar fix. Regular-size candy bars like the ones sold in vending machines routinely sold in the halls for $1.50.
"There was no sugar in the vending machines, so (student vendors) could make a lot of money," said Hayden Starkey, an Austin High junior who said he was not one of the candy sellers. "I heard kids were making $200 a week just selling candy."
Thanks, guys!
Click the blogroll to check out more; Common Sense and Wonder is a terrific site, well worth a daily read!
Unintended Consequences
Further evidence that when an item that consumers demand is banned that a black market will immediately spring up to satisfy the wishes of the people (from Best of the Web):
The candy removal plan, according to students at Austin High, was thwarted by classmates who created an underground candy market, turning the hallways of the high school into Willy-Wonka-meets-Casablanca.
Soon after candy was removed from vending machines, enterprising students armed with gym bags full of M&M's, Skittles, Snickers and Twix became roving vendors, serving classmates in need of an in-school sugar fix. Regular-size candy bars like the ones sold in vending machines routinely sold in the halls for $1.50.
"There was no sugar in the vending machines, so (student vendors) could make a lot of money," said Hayden Starkey, an Austin High junior who said he was not one of the candy sellers. "I heard kids were making $200 a week just selling candy."
Thanks, guys!
Click the blogroll to check out more; Common Sense and Wonder is a terrific site, well worth a daily read!
posted by Timothy Birdnow | 6:54 PM
1 Comments:
I love this story -- goes to show ya - two immutable truths of life -- shortage breeds high prices, banning leads to black markets -- and sugar is highly addictive :-)
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