Is 8 Ball Inflation-Proof?
Following on Peter’s post about whether alcohol is or is not an inferior good, I noticed at the gas station this morning that malt liquor prices appear not to have changed much since I was a consumer in the mid-1990s. A 40 oz of Old English or Colt 45 costs between $1.50 and $1.75, which seems close to what I remember as the going rate. According to the BLS, $1.50 in 1992 has the buying power of $2.28 today, so malt liquor prices appear to have escaped inflation. This even though at -0.79, price elasticity of demand is fairly inelastic, presumably for all the obvious and depressing reasons.
Related: street liquor economics. Interesting stuff.
— Tom · Apr 29, 02:56 PM · #
I noticed at the gas station this morning that malt liquor prices appear not to have changed much since I was a consumer in the mid-1990s.
That is, without doubt, the coolest thing ever written in a post at TAS.
— Jim Manzi · Apr 29, 05:26 PM · #
Really, Matt, do tell us about your days as a consumer of malt liquor in the mid 90s. Inquiring minds want to know.
— Peter Suderman · Apr 29, 06:02 PM · #
That line was my second biggest laugh of yesterday!
The first was a friend’s story. She’s an elementary school nurse, who blew off her son’s claims that he couldn’t see very well until it occurred to her one day that maybe he was serious. When he sat down in the optometrist’s chair and was asked to read the letters on the chart, it took several moments and several lines up from the bottom before he asked, hopefully, “Are those supposed to be letters?”
— Joules · Apr 29, 11:21 PM · #