Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Tobacco Substitutes
My roommate comes to me yesterday and tells me he wants to quit smoking for good. He was complaining about how the price of cigarettes at Tobacco International went up 80 cents, and that he couldn't afford his habit anymore. He has been a smoker for about 8 months, and it has been progressively getting worse. Recently he was up to a pack a day. I asked if he was going to just go cold turkey. He said he knew it would be tough but he thought he could do it. I started thinking how his personal demand for cigarettes would be at a quantity of 0. I'm finally thinking like an economist. Thanks Kyle. Anyway, my roommate comes into my room today and gives me the perfect opportunity to come up with another subject for an Econ 200 post. He sits down on my couch, sets down an empty water bottle, and pulls out a can of dip. "Gotta get my fix somehow," he says. Instantly I began thinking how the can of Skoal and his Camel cigarettes were substitutes of each other. As his demand for cigarettes decreased, it increased for Skoal. I couldn't believe what a perfect example my roommate gave me for this class.
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I know exactly what you mean. Back home one of the guys that I graduated from my school got caught with dip three times and stopped dipping. Instead to get his nicotine fix he started smoking. It is amazing how many subsitutes there are for tobacco products, you have dip, and then you have cigarettes, and within those two categories you have many different choices between Marlboro, Camel,Skoal, Grizzly, and more. And then within each of those you have the substitues of different flavors and different types. It is amazing how many substitutes there are for such a bad habit to start, but I guess the more substitutes each company product has, the better for the consumer because there is more competition.
ReplyDeleteYour blog actually made me laugh.. about your roommate "having to get his fix" some how. I really had no idea where you were going with the story until you mentioned the dipping. Though dipping is not necessarily smoking.. and the cost is slightly different, hasn't the cost for dip gone up as well? Anyways, after reading your post that reminded me of my roommate one time. She used to purchase music from itunes all the time, until she said her music shopping was getting too expensive, so she downloaded limewire. Limewire is notorious for being one of the safest free music downloaders around.. well in her case it wasn't. She went on a music binge and downloaded a good six or seven hundred songs the night she got limewire... Lets just say that though limewire was a great substitute for legally buying music off of itunes, it lead to some major consequences. Not only did her computer attain a nasty virus, but she got a hefty fine for illegal downloading as well. Haha, sucks to be her right?? I'll stick to the legal way of purchasing music, until someone devises a free, legal way to get music - - or in other words, until pigs fly!
ReplyDeleteComing from a person who used to smoke, I don't really think your roommate made the greatest decision in the world. Especially now with Obama's new Tobacco tax coming in to play. The new tax doesn't only affect cigarette companies, also tobacco chew companies also. This will eventually drive the price of dip and cigarettes to an even overwhelming price, which is supposed to reduce the demand for tobacco.
ReplyDeleteHaha, my friend tried the exact same thing and ended up getting hooked on to both! He switches between smoking and Skoal which has obviously made the situation worst!
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