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MATERIALS BALANCE: A hard and fast rule that the total amount of stuff removed from the natural environment will be eventually returned, probably as pollution. This is based on a fundamental law of physics that says material can be neither created nor destroyed, but only transformed. During any given period (such as a year) the quantity of materials returned to the environment is the difference between the quantity extracted and the quantity used by the economy.
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                           PRINCIPLE OF MINIMUM DIFFERENCES: A principle stating that monopolistically competitive firms seek to maintain similarities between products at the same time they promote differences. Similarities enable substitutability, such that one firm can attract the buyers away from other firms. Differences enable uniqueness and market control, such that each firm has market control and is able to charge a higher price than achieved with perfect competition. This principle is also termed Hotelling's paradox. The principle of minimum differences is a guiding feature of monopolistic competition. It is based on the notion that monopolistically competitive firms seek product differentiation, just not too much. Product differentiation provides a firm with market control and the ability to charge a higher price for its product than it might otherwise. However, minimizing product differences maintains substitutability with competitive products. Consider how this principle works for the monopolistically competitive restaurant market in Shady Valley. Manny Mustard's House of Sandwich is one participating firm. Manny's specialty, the Deluxe Club Sandwich, offers a prime example of this principle. - First, Manny must make sure that his product is similar to other products. At the very least, being that he is operating in the restaurant industry, his Deluxe Club Sandwich must be a food product. Should Manny replace his bread, lettuce, tomatoes, and meat, with cardboard, plastic, aluminum, and barbed wire, then he cannot compete effectively for food-hungry buyers. If Manny hopes to attract a lunch crowd, then he must sell food.
Taking this a step farther, if Manny hopes to compete with other establishments selling club sandwiches, then his club sandwich must be similar to their club sandwiches. If they use ham, turkey, and bacon, then he needs to use ham, turkey, and bacon. If he leaves off the bacon, then he does not have a club sandwich, he has a ham and turkey sandwich.
- Second, within the specifics of this product type, Manny can seek differences from the competition. This is why Manny makes his Deluxe Club Sandwich with barbecue sauce rather than mayonnaise. He could also use leaner, fat free, cuts of ham and turkey. Perhaps he could use homemade bread. Maybe he could chop his bacon rather than using strips.
The key, of course, is that Manny seeks to make his Deluxe Club Sandwich a little different from the hundreds of other club sandwiches available in the market. The uniqueness of Manny's Deluxe Club Sandwich is what gives him a teeny, tiny monopoly-slice of the overall market. This is what allows him to charge a slightly higher price than that paid for a generic, run-of-the-mill, nothing-special-about-it, club sandwich.
The ongoing challenge for monopolistically competitive firms is to balance the differences and the similarities. Too many similarities and a firm loses its customers to the competition. Too many differences and it loses its customers to the competition.
Recommended Citation:PRINCIPLE OF MINIMUM DIFFERENCES, AmosWEB Encyclonomic WEB*pedia, http://www.AmosWEB.com, AmosWEB LLC, 2000-2026. [Accessed: July 18, 2026].
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Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time flipping through mail order catalogs trying to buy either a flower arrangement for your aunt or a birthday greeting card for your uncle. Be on the lookout for rusty deck screws.
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A scripophilist is one who collects rare stock and bond certificates, usually from extinct companies.
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