Supply & Demand Part 1

The idea that business theories could apply to relationships first came to me in my introductory economics course in college. Since we spent so much time with supply and demand, I found many connections and began applying economics to my social life. This is my story.

Epiphany

Once I understood the interaction between supply and demand, my mind instantly went to work. Shifts in supply and/or demand would influence the price willing to be paid for a product. Using myself as the product and the ladies as the market, I saw that to increase the price (time, effort, desire, etc.) that the ladies were willing to pay for me, I had to increase demand (be more social, dress better, go on more dates, etc.) OR I could limit supply (less of me on the market).

Decisions, Decisions

I needed to choose the option that maximized my utility. A simple analysis led me to conclude that it was much easier to just limit the supply of me in the market. Once the ladies thought that I was a scarce product, the price would go up. Yeah, that's what I'm talking about.

In Theory vs. In Practice

Once I began to implement this strategy, I immediately began to see a decrease in the price of myself. The ladies were even less interested in putting forth an effort to get noticed by me or going out of their way to talk to me. What happened? My understanding of the theory was correct, but it wasn't working. This frustration continued for months until it hit me. I had missed something and that is the topic of Supply & Demand Part 2.