Why Are Some Things So Expensive and Others So Cheap?

Imagine you have two boxes: one has a single golden coin, and the other has a bag full of regular coins. The box with just one gold coin is worth more because gold is rarer than regular coins. That’s like how some things are expensive, they’re rare or hard to get. And when people want something really bad, its price goes up, even if it’s not that special.

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Examples

  1. A bag of candy costs less than a birthday cake because there's way more candy around.
  2. Gold is expensive because you can't just dig up a whole mountain of it in your backyard.
  3. Everyone wants the latest phone, so its price goes up when it first comes out.

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Categories: Economics · value· scarcity· cost· money· economics