Alchian-Allen Theorem
The Alchian-Allen Theorem is a lesser known but still very interesting economic theory. It states that when a fixed cost is added to substitute goods, the more expensive one becomes relatively less expensive, and so people are likely to increase consumption of the higher quality good. I think the best way to illustrate the theorem is with examples.
Suppose there is a country that makes wine. They can make good wine or mediocre wine. Mediocre wine costs $5 to make and good wine costs $10. Suppose that shipping costs to foreign countries is $5 per bottle. The price of the wine in foreign countries is $10 for mediocre and $15 for expensive. The relative prices at home is 1:2, but abroad is 1:1.5. Abroad, the more expensive wine is less expensive, meaning foreigners will consumer more of the expensive wine. Similarly, if shipping costs fall, foreigners will consumer more of the cheaper wine.
When a drug is outlawed, that applies in effect a large fixed cost of consumption equal to the expected punishment from law enforcement. Thus, in areas where alcohol is outlawed, people tend to drink either high concentration or high quality alcohol. It's simply not worth the trouble to smuggle regular beer. Likewise, the THC content of marijuana has increased as more effort is spent trying to eliminate marijuana use. Paradoxically, because of the higher dosages, drug prohibition can actually increase the dangers associated with drug consumption by eliminating the low cost low concentration doses from the market.
Marriage is a low fixed cost form of dating. You meet your spouse more often and frequently do more trivial things together. Dates are often planned out and take much more effort than the average day of marriage. When taken as a whole, a marriage is more rewarding than a date, but on a per-time unit measure, people do more costly things together on dates.
The Alchian-Allen Theorem has profound explanatory power when applied to the internet. The harder it is to gain access to cultural elements, the higher the quality of those elements will be consumed. On the flip side, if it is easy to access culture, people will prefer to consume shorter lower quality pieces of culture. In the middle ages, people had to travel long distances to view concerts, which were performed by live musicians. Thus, the fixed costs of consumption were very high. If you bothered to pay a huge amount of money and time, you might as well view a long complex opera or symphony. On the flip side, when fixed costs are as low as a Google search, people prefer short YouTube videos of cats doing cute things. Don't think that this means that the quality of culture has gone down.
"What characterizes capitalism is not the bad taste of the crowds, but the fact that these crowds, made prosperous by capitalism, became consumers of literatureof course, of trashy literature. The book market is flooded by a downpour of trivial fiction for the semibarbarians. But this does not prevent great authors from creating imperishable works." - Ludwig von Mises
While the average quality may have gone down, because there are so many people connected to one another than before, the quality of the highest skilled artists is higher than it was in the past. Additionally, there is an opportunity to create things which are far grander than was possible in the past, such as Wikipedia. Because people are able to take cell phone camera pictures, they take photos of things that are completely trivial, but when combined, paint a more detailed view of their life than was possible for even the most famous celebrities in the past.
Suppose there is a country that makes wine. They can make good wine or mediocre wine. Mediocre wine costs $5 to make and good wine costs $10. Suppose that shipping costs to foreign countries is $5 per bottle. The price of the wine in foreign countries is $10 for mediocre and $15 for expensive. The relative prices at home is 1:2, but abroad is 1:1.5. Abroad, the more expensive wine is less expensive, meaning foreigners will consumer more of the expensive wine. Similarly, if shipping costs fall, foreigners will consumer more of the cheaper wine.
When a drug is outlawed, that applies in effect a large fixed cost of consumption equal to the expected punishment from law enforcement. Thus, in areas where alcohol is outlawed, people tend to drink either high concentration or high quality alcohol. It's simply not worth the trouble to smuggle regular beer. Likewise, the THC content of marijuana has increased as more effort is spent trying to eliminate marijuana use. Paradoxically, because of the higher dosages, drug prohibition can actually increase the dangers associated with drug consumption by eliminating the low cost low concentration doses from the market.
Marriage is a low fixed cost form of dating. You meet your spouse more often and frequently do more trivial things together. Dates are often planned out and take much more effort than the average day of marriage. When taken as a whole, a marriage is more rewarding than a date, but on a per-time unit measure, people do more costly things together on dates.
The Alchian-Allen Theorem has profound explanatory power when applied to the internet. The harder it is to gain access to cultural elements, the higher the quality of those elements will be consumed. On the flip side, if it is easy to access culture, people will prefer to consume shorter lower quality pieces of culture. In the middle ages, people had to travel long distances to view concerts, which were performed by live musicians. Thus, the fixed costs of consumption were very high. If you bothered to pay a huge amount of money and time, you might as well view a long complex opera or symphony. On the flip side, when fixed costs are as low as a Google search, people prefer short YouTube videos of cats doing cute things. Don't think that this means that the quality of culture has gone down.
"What characterizes capitalism is not the bad taste of the crowds, but the fact that these crowds, made prosperous by capitalism, became consumers of literatureof course, of trashy literature. The book market is flooded by a downpour of trivial fiction for the semibarbarians. But this does not prevent great authors from creating imperishable works." - Ludwig von Mises
While the average quality may have gone down, because there are so many people connected to one another than before, the quality of the highest skilled artists is higher than it was in the past. Additionally, there is an opportunity to create things which are far grander than was possible in the past, such as Wikipedia. Because people are able to take cell phone camera pictures, they take photos of things that are completely trivial, but when combined, paint a more detailed view of their life than was possible for even the most famous celebrities in the past.