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DIAMOND-WATER PARADOX: The perplexing observation that water, which is more useful than diamonds, has a lower price. If price is related to utility, how can this occur? This paradox was first proposed by classical economists in the 19th century and was subsequently used as a stepping stone for developing the notion of marginal utility and the role it plays in the demand price of a good. The paradox is magically cleared up with an understanding of marginal utility and total utility. People are willing to pay a higher price for goods with greater marginal utility. As such, water which is plentiful has enormous total utility, but a low price because of a low marginal utility. Diamonds, however, have less total utility because they are less plentiful, but a high price because of a high marginal utility.
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TOTAL VARIABLE COST AND TOTAL PRODUCT Because variable cost is largely associated with the cost of employing at least one variable input in the short run, the total variable cost curve can be derived from the total product curve. This admittedly simplistic connection between total product and total variable cost is designed to illustrate the fundamental role that the law of diminishing marginal returns plays in the slope and shape of the total variable cost curve. Because he slope of the total variable cost curve, which is also the slope of the total cost curve, is marginal cost, this analysis also indicates how the law of diminishing marginal returns relates to marginal cost.
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WHITE GULLIBON
[What's This?]
Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time visiting every yard sale in a 30-mile radius looking to buy either a combination CD player, clock radio, and telephone (with answering machine) or a revolving spice rack. Be on the lookout for florescent light bulbs that hum folk songs from the sixties.
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The first U.S. fire insurance company was established by Benjamin Franklin in 1752 in Philadelphia.
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"Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness." -- Martin Luther King, Jr., clergyman
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AFC
Average Fixed Cost
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