Killing John Barleycorn in Sydney
Usually, in classes I tell the story of prices rising in the face of shortages being a result of sellers seeing and seizing the opportunity to raise them in shortages. That is not always the case. Prices can also rise during shortages when buyers want to guarranty availability for themselves or wish to reduce their time waiting in line, because of the high cost of waiting. That is what happened this weekend in Sydney.
Live Earth came and went this weekend. In Sydney, the organizers way underestimated the Aussies’ penchant for beer (underestimating Aussies’ love for the brew is always a losing proposition–remember, the Aussies are the folks whose beer comes in cans the size of our motor oil cans) and, according to this news item from the Sydney Morning Herald, had too few beer vendors on hand, creating very long lines.
“It was ‘unAustralian,’ one spectator protested. ‘This is what happens when you let hippies organise a big event,’ another said. One woman, asked by Missy Higgins ‘how you all are back there,’ earned a wry round of applause from the stands when she shouted: ‘Sober.’”
Tiring of waiting in line, missing performances that they really wish to see, the Sydney concert goers began to offer those who had already gotten their beer as much as $50 a beer. The increase in price due to a shortage can cause buyers to offer more, just as it can cause sellers to raise their asking price.
So, once again, the greenies try to kill off John Barleycorn, this time by restricting sales, and John Barleycorn exacts his revenge, again with high prices.
–MC
July 9th, 2007 at 8:19 am
The Aussies were waiting in line for their Foster’s ‘Big Bloke’ when all of a sudden prices went up. How tragic! They shouldn’t point their fingers at the beer manufacturer but rather their countrymen and women who planned the Live Earth concert. The massive concert was supposed to raise awareness of climate change and the surplus of greenhouse gases, not the shortage of beer. The “sober” crowd gave into their infinite want of beer and began shelling out the dough for the brew. Despite the high prices some Aussies found their way to enjoy the concert with a full tankard while others who were not tanked and went home.
July 19th, 2007 at 1:54 pm
The Aussie’s missed the whole point of raising awareness of the climate change. People paid to go to the concert and went there to become enlightened, but rather they were outraged because of the shortage of people selling alcoholic beverages which caused the lines to be an hour long. This lead to peoples willingness to pay for an alcoholic beverage to increase drastically for one beverage. People were willing to pay a whopping $50 for 1 beverage compared to the normal price which may have been around $5-$6 a piece depending on what they wanted.
October 24th, 2007 at 8:06 am
It is very disturbing to see how some people, in this case the Aussie’s, are more concerned with the shortage of beer than the more imporant topic of our climate and earthly matters. It is sad to see that someone will be willing to pay an amazing $50 dollars on one can of beer, no matter how big the cans are, just to fulfill their wants.When the real event of the day was to enlighten people of the need for clean air and a better enviroment. Just imagine how differently the world would be if people cared about the Earth as much as they care about having a shortage of beer.