> At the end of the day you still drank 1 milk for the same effective price.
Why don't then people just buy 1 milk today at today price instead of buying 2 and throwing one away? They'd still have drunk 1 milk, but for half effective price. Why aren't people already doing that?
People often make fun of economists with their very specific mathematical models of perfectly round customers, production functions, etc. They often have a point. It is important to not forget, however, that the popular understanding of economics is even worse, and your comment is a great example of that.
Because they hope to drink the other jug of milk tomorrow, and sometimes it works, sometimes, sometimes some of the milk gets sour.
The problem is that spending an hour to drive to a grocery store and an hour driving back also costs something, in fuel and labor / time, so it totally makes sense to buy milk with some excess just in case more would be needed.
As said upstream, eliminate most zoning restrictions, make living more densely more accessible. (I line in NYC and the fact that I can walk most anywhere I need is great.)
If you wanted an answer to your question you could google “sources of food waste USA” however if you’d like to make a proper counterpoint instead of a glib remark I’m all ears :)
> They'd still have drunk 1 milk, but for half effective price. Why aren't people already doing that?
I think I've already mentioned expiration dates and education around them, no? [1] My secondary argument is that people value things that are cheap less, and are more likely to waste them.
Why don't then people just buy 1 milk today at today price instead of buying 2 and throwing one away? They'd still have drunk 1 milk, but for half effective price. Why aren't people already doing that?
People often make fun of economists with their very specific mathematical models of perfectly round customers, production functions, etc. They often have a point. It is important to not forget, however, that the popular understanding of economics is even worse, and your comment is a great example of that.