"The economist is not concerned with psychological or other reasons that motivate individual choices. Just ask the individual preferences, whatever their source, and faces constraints (income and product prices, for example) that limit the satisfaction of his preferences, to be able to analyze their choices. "(Pierre Lemieux, The Economy, Les Belles Lettres, Paris, 2008, p. 12)
In asking that his income and price of products form the basic constraints of the individual, the popular economic theories may fail be the essential constraint of modern man: the inconvenience caused by the possession of property. As property owned by individuals were rare, the place they occupied in the house or garage, and the time needed to devote to their purchase and maintenance seemed negligible. The space and time available could then be considered unlimited.
A bank manager from Lac-Saint-Jean, who boasted that he knew nothing about the economy (he was a graduate in sociology) was quite happy to kill time with me in his spacious office. "Two months ago," he said at the turn of the conversation, that our new audio system drags down the hall from the entrance. I not yet found the time nor the motivation to open the box. "
My cousin wants me to gift a luxurious espresso machine, inherited from a parent. There is no question here of income constraint, or price constraint. I just wonder if I want to further clutter my kitchen counter. Unless you store the huge machine in a corner cupboard? But the more we ad'objets, the more we must give them the care and storage is more laborious to extract them from their hiding place. The best coffee is it not the coffee filter, which is based on the round the stove, after it have drawn the second or third cup and rinsed it in a jiffy? Unless you do the coffee ceremony a major event of domestic life, the slight difference between an espresso and a coffee filter is it worth all the trouble caused by the expensive espresso machine, even when it does not cost a penny?
The cellar was not it more functional if it only contained potatoes in bulk, bottles of wine and coal?
The accumulation of these small machines finally invade the house and the owner's lifetime. A nice computer, much faster than that has just released in stores and is reaching out. But if you want to make the new machine as functional as the previous number of hours and days will he devote to install all the programs necessary? And should we keep the old computer or cluttering the basement? Should we get rid of a rather specialized deposit, located to the devil vauvert and closed when you're free? And if we keep three or four active computers in the house, how many times a year do we risk being frustrated by a failure, a freak, a virus, a total disaster?
Consumers Bai Lide is pissed off. He is loath to get rid of those old-fashioned pair of shoes that are beginning to seriously encumber his wardrobe. This is a new dilemma for consumers on which economists remain rather discreet.
Even when products are coveted ones, and that the constraint of price and income return, the fundamental question is not "Is it worth spending so much money? But "Is what I will have my money or am I trying to cheat me? . The acquisition of property is still causing me the hassle. I must check prices, compare products that manufacturers are struggling to make incomparable, wait for the right moment, or throw myself before it's too late. What suffering! And the theory of the consumer is careful not to count them.
Buy a new car? I wish, and since that time I put the thing tomorrow, I ended up accumulating a nest egg more than enough. But I have neither the courage nor the energy to study the models to find one that suits me. It will then choose the best dealer in the area and deal with charlatans who say mass. Then get rid of the old vehicle save the new, stand in line, take a taxi, synchronize all these operations. How many days of fatigue in perspective! And the spell will soon broken by a minor glitch, a manufacturing defect, a scratch unexpected, reflecting unexpected hinder driving, a visit to a pothole, an unexpected increase in insurance. How many disappointments await us! The more one is rich in goods, the poorer you are in hours of recklessness.
Eventually, some people end up liking the easement, the hours lost in procuring vulgar toasters and other pairs of socks. They love to stroll through the shops. They sacrifice with joy, the best years of their life, they are for trade and disadvantages of the post-sale.
Would it not be simpler to go on a trip and any blaze in a few weeks? We could go home empty handed, with a light heart and carefree.
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