Is gas a Giffen good in The Road Warrior?
An economic oddity, a Giffen good violates the law of demand in that it possesses a positively sloped demand curve. That is, the more expensive the good becomes, the more it is consumed. While largely a theoretical possibility, the concept of the Giffen good is premised on the understanding that it is strongly inferior and that it absorbs a substantial portion of the consumers income. For the purposes of this response, I will argue that the circumstances surrounding gasoline in The Road Warrior (1981) define it as a Giffen good in the context of the film. My argument rests on the understanding that in the weird moneyless economy of the film, income is represented through the expenditure of the characters time and effort. The more time and effort they spend in pursuit of a good, the greater are their expenditures on it. Correspondingly, the price of a good is the toll it exacts from the characters. Set in a post-apocalyptic wasteland, the plot of The Road Warrior is structured by a biza
