What Else Acts Like Cheap Wine and Cigarettes?
It’s interesting to see how people’s spending patterns respond to a (presumably) temporary decline in income during the recession.
Which items are more or less income-elastic in the short run? A pediatrician friend of ours mentions that he is seeing less business; when there are three kids with coughs, for example, a parent will bring in one, get him diagnosed, then treat the other two the same way at home — thus saving two co-payments.
The Austin marathon, the biggest race of the year, will not have its usual corporate sponsors, and thus no elite runners either. I expect that, as in the last recession, there will also be a large decline in plastic surgeries.
All of these appear to be postponable luxuries — and I wonder what are other weird examples? Also, aside from the usual suspects (grocery purchases being the standard example), what else doesn’t decrease much? Pornography, cigarettes, cheap wine?
(Hat tip: AS)
Comments