Editor’s note: The following article is an op-ed, and the views expressed are the author’s own. Read more opinions on theGrio.
Would you invest in cocaine?
During my time as an economics professor, I used this question as an allegory for the basic laws of supply and demand. Using the illegal drug as an allegory for free-market economics gave students a better, less abstract grasp of the social, political and real-world complexities of a free-market economy. Invariably, one student would introduce morality into this theoretical exercise in economics. The student was almost always Black and would argue that investing in cocaine made them a drug dealer. To them, dealing drugs was immoral, no matter how profitable it seemed. They had seen it ravage neighborhoods and ruin lives. To them, this was not a game. Instead of explaining that this was just an extended allegory, I would pose another question:
“OK, what about baking soda?”
Anyone who grew up in a household that forbade talking during thunderstorms understands Black people’s semi-religious relationship with sodium bicarbonate. In Black households, baking soda is a toothpaste for the Crest-fallen and a deodorant for Tussyless grandmothers. I still keep it in my refrigerator, although I don’t quite know what it does.
In the economics of cocaine, sodium bicarbonate is the economic equivalent of a unicorn. It is a magic ingredient that somehow increased the supply and the demand. By adding baking soda to cocaine, dealers made more money from the same supply. According to government data, during the crack boom 1980s, the price of pure cocaine decreased but profits increased. Baking soda created new customers and made the old customers spend more. It was a…
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