Economics 101 -- Supply and Demand

By Charles Moncrief

The company that made the perfect dog food experienced a marketing failure because the dogs wouldn’t eat their product. The most basic of economic principles, supply and demand, were in play. The dog food was one of countless patents and copyrights that languish because of no demand.

An April 29 editorial in the Houston Chronicle applies this principle from a different perspective. The title is “In Child Trafficking Cases, Place Blame on Buyers.” While this editorial indirectly suggests penalizing those on the demand side, the intended result is the same: to make it unprofitable to supply a product.

We can apply this principle to most of the major social problems that plague society. Consider pornography, made worse in the last decade by emerging and growing technologies that make this one of the most lucrative industries on the internet. It’s profitable because of the demand for commercial sex.


Drug trafficking is a similar problem, profitable only because of demand. Any war on the supply side of the illegal drug trade is a failure before it starts. Everyone in the supply chain has at least one other person ready to take over when the position is vacated either by arrest or by death. (Actually, death typically follows arrest. The procedure is to bring cash to make bail, kill the released prisoner, present the death certificate, and recover the bail money.) Nonetheless, someone is always willing to take the risk in return for the potential reward.

Several years ago the “Just Say No” program was instituted, and immediately the program and its champions became a laughing stock. America’s youth had nothing but contempt for the program, making it a laughing stock. Since that time it has become common knowledge that the program was only an attempt to appear interested in slowing the drug trade.

The April 29 editorial brought out a concept well known in our national and state capitols. The problem goes deeper than ignorance. It reaches into the pocketbooks and addictions of those in the highest levels of government. We’ve all read reports of cases exposing government officials who pay for sex with children, legislators being treated for drug abuse, and high-level officials viewing and downloading pornography from the internet onto government computers.


The legislators and our chief law enforcers for one reason or another are inadequate to address the demand side of illegal trafficking. The court systems are also of little help, since their only concern is with the law. Such high-sounding terms as morality, ethics, and justice are irrelevant unless they are happy by-products of following the law.


The demand side of much illegal trafficking must first be addressed in the home.


In the case of child trafficking, the issue needs to begin with sexual abuse in all of its dimensions. Diane Cranley, the founder of TAALK (“Talk About Abuse to Liberate Kids”) has set up taalk.org to help in the efforts to educate children effectively. Her premise is to break the silence that surrounds child sexual abuse, promoting early exposure and creating a safe home environment for open dialogue between parent and child. Age-appropriate sharing can go far in the inoculation of children against all forms of sexual abuse, from inappropriate contact by predators to avoiding abduction and later even becoming a customer of the sex trade.


These principles are portable; that is, they can apply to drug consumption as well. Just as parents can tell their children that there are good and bad touches, parents can tell their children that there good and bad medicines. Just as parents can tell their children that some people try to touch them in bad ways, parents can tell their children that some people try to give them bad medicines.


The principle of supply and demand is more powerful than any legislation ever passed in the capitals of the states and our nation. Obstacles remain to the effective use of these principles in the areas of human and drug trafficking, undeniably. But it is possible to make strides in overcoming these obstacles only if we will start. The time to make that start is now.


Grace and Peace,

Charles+

The O-Ring Memo

Some 50 days into what’s becoming known as “The Gulf Oil Spill” we hear of safety compromises by all of those involved in the original drilling project. According to one source, BP has been accused of some 740 safety violations in 2009 and 2010, compared to one by Exxon Mobil and 8 by Shell Oil. It’s hard to be objective when such loss of life and livelihood come at the result of negligence. It’s even harder to be objective in the face of expected increases in government regulations, which will translate to higher prices for motor fuels and everything in the economy that gets shipped.


It is useless to cast blame until we’ve made it through the crisis. Nonetheless, I’m dismayed that once again we turned our backs on “the O-Ring Memo,” a tool that could have prevented most if not all of our current crisis.  


The “O-Ring Memo” should have kept the space shuttle Challenger from exploding seventy-four seconds into its launch and killing its seven occupants on January 28, 1986. Roger Boisjoly, an engineer for Morton Thiokol, Inc., in July of 1985 had written a confidential memo to his company’s engineering vice president “… to insure that management is fully aware of the seriousness of the current O-ring erosion problem...” [from M.M. Jennings, Case Studies in Business Ethics, 2nd ed. (West Publishing, 1996)]. The day before the accident Boisjoly and another Thiokol engineer unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the launch. Although NASA and Thiokol knew that the launch-time temperature was ten degrees below the accepted safe minimum, the engineers were considered insignificant by management standards. 
Partly due to Boisjoly’s memo, litigation attorneys all over the nation rejoiced. 


The “O-Ring Memo” should have kept a downtown Minneapolis bridge from collapsing and killing 13 people when it collapsed August 1, 2007. At least one NTSB investigator referred to “under-designed” gusset plates. Within a year the “O-Ring Memo” surfaced, written during the design process by some insignificant engineer at URS Corp., the contractor that built (or warranted) the bridge. The memo criticized the gusset plate design, and in the legal community a good time was had by all. 


While engineers are at the bottom rung of any ladder when it comes to credibility, the cost of ignoring them can sometimes never be recovered. “Nerds” make good comedy fodder with their pocket protectors and funny ways of talking. The late Walter Cronkite spoke of NASA’s successful launches as “great scientific achievements” and the unsuccessful ones as “engineering failures.” 


But the engineer has counterparts when it comes to society’s disregard. Let’s notice who else gets short shrift when it comes to credibility. 


The abused child is expelled from school for accusing her father, a respected member of his church or community. 

The seminary student remains silent when molested by a clergyman on the short list to be elected bishop. 


The wife’s protest is dismissed because her husband is popular in the business community and a contributor to numerous charities. 


Among victims of abuse the equivalent of the “O-Ring Memo” is the “Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit.” The affidavit contains critical information to help victims document their experiences and create a permanent legal record. Its purpose is to insure that instances of abuse are recorded for future use in the legal system. This relatively new tool has already changed some lives, and it is on its way to saving countless others. 


The “Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit,” just as the “O-Ring Memo,” has far-reaching implications and is relatively simple to prepare. As far down on the food chain as an engineer sits, a small action can have a monumental effect. And an person, no matter how insignificant the abuser has made her feel, also has the power to perform a small action with an effect just as monumental. 


Grace and Peace,
Charles+



Editor's note:  Just as our cemeteries are filling because of the oversight of something so simple as an "O-Ring" they are filling even faster because of the effects of domestic violence.  The Evidentiary Abuse Affidavit is something that has been compared to a paper clip, something so simple that has far reaching capabilities to enhance every day life.