{"id":1866,"date":"2014-10-29T21:43:09","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T01:43:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.graymanwrites.com\/blog\/?p=1866"},"modified":"2014-10-29T22:05:21","modified_gmt":"2014-10-30T02:05:21","slug":"when-does-i-want-become-you-must","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/when-does-i-want-become-you-must\/","title":{"rendered":"When Does ‘I Want’ Become ‘You Must’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I think it’s important that we remember that the Law of Supply and Demand does not state, “Someone else must supply what I demand.”<\/p>\n

\"Economics<\/a>
\n(“Economics Basics: Demand and Supply,” by Fabio Venni, on Flickr under Creative Commons.)<\/em><\/p>\n

We would do well to remember it when we “demand” anything, of anyone, whether we do so with a threat or simply without offering any recompense, and whether we do so to benefit ourselves or on behalf of others. It is one thing to make a request, or to suggest an exchange of value that someone else may consider, and quite another to make a demand.<\/p>\n

The Rush song “Something for Nothing” comes to mind, e.g., “you can’t have freedom for free.”*<\/p>\n

It seems to me like the most basic economics. We want (and even perhaps need) something that someone else has, and we either: request them to share it, offer to earn or purchase it, or demand to be given it. The first is mendicity, and meeting the request would be charity; the second is commerce and industry, and accepting the offer would lead to an exchange of value; the third may range from immaturity to larceny, and meeting the demand would seem to be little more than acquiescence and an invitation to further demands.<\/p>\n

So far as I can tell, then, “I want” does not require or even imply “you must.”<\/p>\n

___
\n*As much as I would like to quote more of the song, I’m not convinced a longer quote would be considered “fair use” and my respect for their copyright prevents me from doing so.<\/em><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>by <\/span>\"feather\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I think it’s important that we remember that the Law of Supply and Demand does not state, “Someone else must supply what I demand.” (“Economics Basics: Demand and Supply,” by Fabio Venni, on Flickr under Creative Commons.) We would do well to remember it when we “demand” anything, of anyone, \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[390],"class_list":["post-1866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-musings","tag-economics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1866"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1868,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1866\/revisions\/1868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.grayrinehart.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}