Economics of Oil and Fruit Roll-Ups
July 10th, 2010 by Jacob Rheuban
In the first grade, my favorite part of my lunch was Fruit Roll-Ups. My Mom used to call them fruit road kill, but to my first grade taste buds they were a gourmet fruit treat. I quickly learned that my consumption of fruit rolls ups could not exceed my supply. I had two primary supply sources of Fruit Roll-Ups:
- domestic supply from home: those Fruit Roll-Ups that my mother purchased and put into my Spider-Man lunch box.
- non-domestic supply: those Fruit Roll-Ups that I gained from other sources, primarily through purchase or barter transactions with classmates.
Obtaining Fruit Roll-Ups up from sources other than my Mother was expensive and unreliable. When supply for barter was available I would offer a cookie for an orange flavored fruit roll up or my place in line at the handball court for an apricot fruit roll up (my favorite flavor). My Mother’s nurturing nature made domestic supply the most stable source of Fruit Roll-Ups. I could rely on that one Fruit Roll-Up to always be in my lunch box. I understood at a young age the hazards of upsetting my Mother, who among countless other things, could affect a disturbance of my stable domestic source of Fruit Roll-Ups I knew that if that source was upset I would need to work hard to increase non-domestic supply or inevitably reduce consumption.
Stated in its most simple terms, my consumption of Fruit Roll-Ups could not exceed my supply .
Given that:
CFR = my consumption of Fruit Roll-Ups
FRmom = Fruit Roll-Ups supplied by my Mom
FRclassmates = Fruit Roll-Ups obtained through barter with classmates
Then:
CFR = FRmom + FRclassmates
I learned this simple truth of the relationship between consumption and supply at a young age. And every day as an adult I deal with the economic reality that my consumption of the things that I need or want cannot exceed my supply. If one source of supply of anything I desire diminishes, I have no choice but to find a way to increase supply from other sources or reduce consumption. The Fruit Roll-Up analogy might have been a long winded method to summarize this formula, but something inside of me just felt like blogging about Fruit Roll-Ups today.
This same rule of supply and demand applies to our nation’s supply and use of oil. The nuances of the economics of oil are substantially more complicated that those of Fruit Roll-Ups. Oil supply and demand is impacted by a variety of domestic and global economic, social and political factors. While these factors may resemble school yard economic, social and political factors, they are more complex if for no other reason than because of the amount of money and people involved. But the fundamental restriction that consumption cannot exceed supply holds true.
This is my first do it yourself post and it’s for all the running and hiking nuts out there. I’ve read in a variety of articles and advertisements that when running, hiking, cycling or participating in other outdoor recreational pursuits, it’s a good idea to carry ID and emergency contact information. I suppose that in the event that I get injured and am unable to effectively communicate with emergency responders, I would rather be an injured Jacob than an injured John Doe.
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