Nice Roost Of Chickens You've Got There!

I know quite a few people who are of the opinion that the laws of sociology and economics can be repealed with the simple stroke of a pen.  The most popular law for repeal, one that is common to both disciplines, is that:  "Human needs are infinite, human resources are finite."  Economics is a study of how we allocate those scarce resources, while sociology, in part, looks at why we do.  

One of those long-running contentions I've had with others is simple - at least it seems to me - that when prices go up, people will buy less of an item, or will buy fewer other items in order to
keep purchasing similar amounts of the first item.  That seems to be confirmed in this recent story,
with the money 'graf here:  Figures released on Monday showed that spending on food and gasoline is crowding out other purchases, leaving people with less to spend on furniture, clothing and electronics.

Seems obvious to me.

Luxury goods go by the wayside first.  I mean, I used to love going into the Sharper Image stores 
and playing with the fun gadgets.  But for the most part, that is what they were - fun gadgets.  Not things that you had to have to stay alive, simply bits of fun to make the edges of an already satisfied life more fun.  Let's just hope we don't start seeing grocery stores going belly up.