Palm | Kelapa Sawit

The Story



As we all know there is a serious effort by many drivers on the road today to increase the average MPG of their existing vehicle. Many drivers are attempting to do this out of "eco-guilt", the guilt that they feel as a result of driving their car, while others do it as a means to save money. Either way the desire is there and for the sake of economics we'll call this desire "demand", which can be defined, "as the willingness and ability of a consumer to purchase a given product in a given frame of time.."



Now lets look at this same situation from another point of view. Capitalism can be defined as, "an economic and social system in which most trade and industry are privately controlled for profit rather than by the state." Since we live in a capitalistic society we can assume that there is someone out there somewhere who will attempt to take advantage of this opportunity to make money. As we have done above, we will call this “supply” for economics' sake.

Finally, elasticity, "refers to how supply and demand respond to various factors, including price as well as other stochastic principles". Applying this definition to our scenario, we can interpret the word stochastic to represent the unpredictable behavior of the consumer.

Economic Consequences

So, as the demand increases market rules suggest that the supply will also adjust to meet that demand. However, the suppliers are at an advantage because the false sense of urgency created by the media has simulated a highly inelastic environment. The media have compounded the publics need to feel as though they are doing their part to save the environment. Additionally, the economic strife that we have run headlong into over the last 18 months has caused people to go to ridiculous lengths to save money. This is often times taken to the extreme level of spending exceeding saving for the purpose of saving.

The arising problem lies amongst the individuals and companies that are entering into this newly developing market, of modifying existing vehicles to improve the gas mileage, for the sake of earning a profit at any expense. As you scour the web for ideas and gadgets that may help you in your adventure to reduce the MPG of your vehicle you may notice many “Miracle” gadgets or ideas that promise outlandish results. However, many of these gadgets and ideas are not as miraculous as they claim. In fact, many of them have no benefit what so ever.

Buyer Beware

If you go to the links that I will post below you will learn of just a few sources that have given a dose of reality to the preposterous claims of some of these ideas. Unfortunately, despite the public information that these products don't work, many of them are still on the market and the companies still continue to sell their products despite understanding that they are for the most part worthless.

Therefore, I propose that before any of us go out on a limb to purchase some kind of gadget or try some kind of crazy sounding idea to reduce our average MPG, that we should do some substantial research and understand what we are getting into.

Links:

http://www.popularmechanics.com/automotive/new_cars/1802932.html

and

http://www.fuelsaving.info/debunk.htm