Last week, I was at a stationery shop, buying gift wrap for our granddaughter’s birthday presents. As the shopkeeper was busy with other customers, I began browsing through the books haphazardly stacked on a nearby shelf. My casual search led me to an Economics textbook, and I stumbled upon the topic of the ‘Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility’.
That was a throwback moment! It took me right back to my junior college days and Venkat Ramaiah sir’s Economics class. Not only did he teach us Economics, but he also doubled as our English lecturer. He was quite a storyteller. A master of simplicity, he had a knack for distilling complex theories into stories from his boarding school days. The ‘Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility’, as he explained, was straightforward: the more you consume a good, the less satisfaction you derive from each additional unit.
I still remember his example: ‘Imagine eating ice cream. The first one is heavenly, the second delightful, the third tolerable, and by the fourth, you’ll be eyeing the washroom.’ We laughed then, but at the stationery shop, staring at that textbook, I had an epiphany: the French economist who postulated this law must have either never met a child or been woefully underfunded for even a second scoop of ice cream. A case of sour grapes, perhaps?
When theory meets reality
Revisiting the same theory decades later, I couldn’t help but question its validity. Whoever coined this law might have done so for their time, but in today’s world, the idea feels more theoretical than practical. Case in point: my three-year-old granddaughter, whose affection for chocolate knows no bounds. Present her with one, two, three, or even five chocolates, and her excitement remains endless, defying the logic of diminishing returns.
In truth, children aren’t the only ones who reject this law. Look around you. People rarely stop at ‘just enough’. Contentment has become an endangered concept. Be it money, houses, cars, gadgets, or even social media followers, the hunger for ‘more’ is insatiable. The line between need and greed has long blurred. The first crore might bring happiness, but it’s the tenth that seems to fuel ambition.
Our endless appetite
If Venkat Ramaiah sir – who always wore white pants and a white shirt, prompting less respectful pupils to jeer ‘Tinopal’ – were alive today, I’d invite him to our granddaughter’s next birthday party. Watching her devour chocolate after chocolate with unyielding delight, he might reconsider his ice cream analogy. And if the original economist were around, I would encourage him to join the festivities too. After witnessing today’s world, he might not just rewrite his theory but also pen a sequel: ‘The Law of Exponential Greed’.
So, dear Anne-Robert-Jacques Turgot, may your theory rest in peace while the rest of us chase our endless appetites, gleefully gobbling up the world — one scoop, one chocolate, and one dream at a time.