Re:World’s consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes...
by friendlybus on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @12:36PM
(#22119850)
Why would you sell a scarce resource for cheap? Your incentive is to ride the supply & demand line.
Re:World’s consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes...
by gwbas1c on Wednesday January 22, 2020 @04:52PM
(#22122440)
> My incentive is to sell it now and make sure that it lasts long enough to build me a nice fat retirement fund. Who cares about people 200 years from now.
Re:World’s consumption of materials hits record 100bn tonnes...
by friendlybus on Thursday January 23, 2020 @11:17AM
(#22128723)
Yes but it's scarce. As he sells the price goes up so he controls the outcome. His nest egg permanently exists because it's limited, the supply will always drop. Selling the last dregs of helium for military contracts or private industry will eclipse any reasonable monetary requirements. He can hang on to the smallest amount for a long time.
If helium doesn't sell for that much at the last point then it wasn't worth that much anyway and he couldn't build a nest egg off a normal sale price.
I don't get it.
I think looking at this as purely a matter of price is just a way to ignore the problem.
Let's say I happen to own a large supply of a limited resource. I can sell that resource so it's cheap for everyone else, yet in volume, I get very rich.
The problem is that resource will run out at some time in the future. My incentive is to sell it now and make sure that it lasts long enough to build me a nice fat retirement fund. Who cares about people 200 years from now.