the.com/demand curve
Proof that everyone has a price, graphed with embarrassing precision.
means A graph showing how much of something people will buy at each possible price, with quantity demanded falling as price rises.
from From economics' habit of drawing abstractions as lines: 'demand' traces to Latin demandare (to entrust, hand over a commission), later narrowed in commerce to 'asking for' or 'requiring' a price. 'Curve' comes from Latin curvus, bent. The demand curve itself is a 19th-century graphical invention — economists like Alfred Marshall popularized plotting price against quantity — turning the plain verb 'to demand' into a sloping line on a chart.
- slope
- almost always goes down, not up
- exception
- giffen goods defy it when poorer means buying more
- shifts vs moves
- price moves you along it, taste shifts the whole line
- economist joke
- stranded on an island, assumes a can opener exists