You are the type of person who maintains an oasis of calm in the midst of any storm. Family and friends worry that you will be run over by a fast-moving pedestrian. Today, you are likely to spend a great deal of time wandering around the downtown area looking to buy either a three-hole paper punch or decorative picture frames. Be on the lookout for cardboard boxes. You should consider shopping at stores or businesses beginning with the letter M, but do not buy any products with a serial number or product code containing the number 404805. Your preferred shopping venue is department stores. Your special symbol is the at sign (@).

As a Blue Placidola, you are easy-going and even-tempered, calm and composed. For you, the hectic pace of a crowded shopping mall during the holiday rush is nothing, it's little more than a tranquil stroll in the park. Life is good. Life goes on. Why worry. You are a happy shopper and you seldom fret over trivial details of a market exchange, in part because you are astute enough to get moderately low prices and relatively good deals.

Goods characterized by rival consumption and the inability to exclude nonpayers. Common-property goods are one of four types of goods differentiated by consumption rivalry and nonpayer excludability. The other three goods are private (rival consumption and nonpayers can be excluded), public (nonrival consumption and nonpayers cannot be excluded), and near-public (nonrival consumption and nonpayers can be excluded). Nonrival consumption and the ease of excluding of nonpayers means common-property goods cannot be efficiently exchanged through markets and are often overconsumed.

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Upon leaving Scarcity Stan's Bakery Shoppe and Confectionery Palace our pedestrian's excursion drops into Mega-Mart Discount Warehouse Super Center. A quick tour of this mecca of mass production -- lasting no more than three days -- is likely to reveal within the 20 gadzillion square feet of floor space a number of sales racks, shelves, and tables filled with merchandise marked down for clearance. A prominently displayed sign on one sales rack boldly declares that the regular $24.99 price has been drastically reduced, for this week only, to $3.98. What a bargain! What a sale! We have the chance -- "for a limited time only" -- to get stuff valued at $24.99 for only $3.98! With a bargain like this, how can we lose?

It's easy to lose, if you don't understand the concept of value. Most of us have several "bargains" stored away in the attic, closet, or garage that never have seen, and probably never will see, anything resembling use. What seemed like a great "bargain" at the store, does nothing but occupy space at home. (By the way, does anyone have use for a distributor cap for a 1949 Ford?)
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