Daily quote by Price

• Because economic resources are not only scarce but have alternative uses, the efficient use of these resources requires both consumers and producers to make trade-offs and substitutions. Prices provide the incentives for doing so. When the price of oranges goes up, some consumers switch to tangerines. But not everyone stops eating oranges when they become more pricey. Some people continue to eat the same number of oranges they always ate, some cut back a little, some cut back a lot, and others forget about oranges completely and go on to some other fruit. Note that what is happening here is not just substitution— it is incremental substitution.
  • Thomas Sowell, Basic Economics, 4th ed. (2010), Ch. 4. An Overview