Oh, supply and demand, how I love thee.  Now, it's been a really long time since I took an economy class, but, as I recall, as demand increases, prices tend to rise.  Seems like a pretty basic premise.  Now, I'm not saying that I'm an expert or anything, but I think I have a basic enough understand of supply and demand to say that I know what will happen in certain scenarios.

For example, if group A and group B both make the same thing, and every now and then, group A uses some of group B's equipment, group B will charge X amount.  Now, let's say that group A is going out of business, but still wants to use group B's equipment.  Now that group B is the dominant force on the market, group B is going to charge whatever the market will bear for the same service.

Everyone agree?  (Since this isn't exactly an interactive forum, I will continue my point.  Take that, that one guy who reads this blog!  Or, tell me I'm a dumbass in the comments.  That's cool, too.)

So.  Let's replace, in the example above, group A with NASA, group B with the Russians, equipment with space shuttles, and X with 26.3 million dollars.  Check out what happens!

The price for American astronauts to hitch a ride on a Russian spaceship is going sky high.   

NASA on Tuesday signed a contract to pay $55.8 million per astronaut for six Americans to fly into space on Russian Soyuz capsules in 2013 and 2014. NASA needs to get rides on Russian rockets to the International Space Station because it plans to retire the space shuttle fleet later this year.

I wish I were as S-M-R-T as Teh Won ...

Posted by: Ember at 08:46 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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