Prompt: please look at the following images and discuss them particularly in the context of what supply and demand suggests how we can think of this issues illustrated:
Poster 4: This poster can be related to our class discussion on Friday. We talked about how when there is a drought, the government mandates that water be preserved. But, as Professor Rizzo points out, that is truly not enough to preserve water. A price needs to be associated with using water in times like that because when prices are higher, people are less likely to use water aimlessly due to the high cost.
So, this poster talks about "Waste Helps the Enemy" and how we should "Conserve Material". In my opinion, this propaganda poster is not enough to preserve the goods. The poster needs to somehow explain HOW waste helps the enemy and how conserving material is less costly than is not conserving material.
In short, this poster is trying to show how we should maintain the supply of a good by not wasting it. But once again, going back to Friday's lecture, without quantifying what the cost is, it may not be successful in conserving the good, as we saw with the water example Prof. Rizzo gave us.
Poster 10: This is a very interesting propaganda poster which shows a man driving a car and an outline of Hitler in the passenger seat. The poster states: "When you ride ALONE you ride with Hitler!" and "Join a car-sharing club TODAY!"
Connecting this to supply and demand, I would say that this advertisement is advertising the idea that we should reduce the demand of cars, which would increase the supply. The advertisement is saying to share cars. If people share cars, people overall would demand them less because instead of lets say every single person in a household having one car, there might be only one per family. And if families consider that to be sufficient, demand for cars would decrease.
As a result, that means that supply of cars would increase. Less of a demand for cars would translate into less cars being bought. With less cars being bought, there would be a much higher supply of cars that were not sold.
Poster 19: This poster is a slave poster which says: "This World Cannot Exist Half Slave and Half Free" and "Sacrifice For Freedom".
This can be connected to Poster 10. What the advertisement is trying to tell us is that we can't live in a world that is half free and half not-free, and that freedom for all is the best way to live. Thus, the poster wants us to "sacrifice" the slaves people owned so everyone can be free.
If people did this, demand of slavery would definitely decrease- if everyone were free, than that would be a result of people not wanting to own slaves anymore. Thus, the demand for slavery would decrease.
Those people who were slaves, however, would no be free. But, if we thought of them still as slaves, the supply of slavery would spike up dramatically. If slave owners decided to get rid of slaves, there would be a lot more available to have because less were being used.
Poster 31: This poster includes a blonde woman with her right hand raised. The poster reads: "I pay no more than top legal prices" and "I accept no rationed goods without giving up ration stamps".
I believe this poster has a little to do with rationing mechanisms and supply and demand.
The first quote on the poster says that we should not pay anymore than top legal prices. Thus, if prices are above legal prices, it appears that demand would decrease and supply would increase as a result, as explained in the posters above. At the same time, if the price for goods were below the legal price, and we were to follow these instructions, demand would increase and supply would as a result decrease.
The second quote is an example of a rationing mechanism, something we have discussed in class this week frequently.
Ration stamps, it appears, are a form of currency like money. Perhaps the poster is also implying that some people receive rationed goods without having to give up ratio stamps, which is not good either.
I'd like to connect this to the discussion we had in class about the swine flu vaccine Prof. Rizzo talked to us about. He told us that the way the flu vaccine dispersion worked was as follows: the vaccine was distributed to different counties, and the county governments were free to pass out the vaccine any way they wished. The way it worked was that whoever "needed" the vaccine, got it. It didn't cost more money for people who needed it more as no price was attached to it. It all had to do with how much each person claimed that he/she did or didn't need it.
As Prof. Rizzo points out, this is not good because some people received it who didn't really need it. That is why the price system is so good- those who need a good are most are willing to pay the highest price, which is why it is a good rationing mechanism.
So, back to the poster. If people were accepting rationed goods without paying, that is not good because then people who truthfully need the goods may not be able to do so since supply would be lower. It is important, in this case, to only accept rationed goods when paying for it because those who need it most are willing to incur the cost of paying for it. If it is given out freely, than demand would shoot up for the goods because people will want to get the goods in case they need it for the future, while supply would decrease as a result which could cause certain people not to be able to get the goods of which they are in dire need.
So, I think the 2nd quote on this poster is a very legitimate piece of advice. If everyone follows the price system (in this case, rationing stamps) we are all better off.
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