Does Applejack not understand basic economics? · 6:38pm Dec 10th, 2019
In the season 2 episode, The Super Speedy Cider Squeezy 6000, the main point of conflict early in the story is that the Apple family keeps running out of cider before everypony can be served. This happens to Rainbow Dash, where she doesn't get any cider because the daily supply was depleted. Basically, the demand was higher than the supply. There were more ponies who wanted to buy the cider than there was cider available.
The solution is simple. Increase the price of cider. This would have the effect of lowering the demand (because not everypony would be willing to pay more), until it matched the supply. This would achieve a market equilibrium, which is what businesses need to maximize profit. You always wants your supply and demand for said supply to be the same, so that the quantity of supply is optimal.
Let's do the math. Say there are 200 ponies who want to buy cider. Let's also say each mug of cider is 2 bits. However, only the first 100 ponies can buy it on a first-come-first-serve basis. That means (100 x 2) the Apple family will make 200 bits in profit that day. However, if you double the price to 4 bits, let's assume the demand would be cut in half (it wouldn't by that much, but let's just assume for the sake of argument). Now you only have 100 ponies buying, which is fine because originally only the first 100 were buying anyway. Now the profit (100 x 4) is 400 bits. So by increasing the price, the Apple family makes more money, and they solve the issue of demand superseding the supply.
This doesn't even address the conflict later on, where the Apple family beats technological innovation with unpaid labour. Seriously like what the fuck was that?
Math prolly hurts AJ.