From Cambridge to Eternity: “Variation vs Change”
Imagine, as opposed to realizing, we are in the widget “market” of Mini-polis in the month of April 2036 wherein the unit of account is the thaler and the medium of exchange is thaler bills, solid (cash) or “thin-airy” (deposits). Ah, we are in the textbook not in the realty; demand schedules of households and supply schedules of firms exist ex ante , but lining either up in a “nicely” order for the purpose of accounting is ex post . We further suppose the demand schedule of the community for the month instant to be: the demand “curve” p= -2 ∙ q+ 47 (in thalers , meaning thaler bills). To begin, we never forget that half a widget is useless, not to mention the infinitesimal thereof. On the flipside, we understand that the intercept 47 , which might conveniently be called “the constant,” equals the “marginal benefit” of t...