Mundell-Lemming Conditions
An (un)Original Theorem
In this post I would like to posit my first theorem, what I shall call the Impossibility Trini-tea or the Mundell-Lemming conditions.* I hypothesize that any given time, a household or individual must choose two out of the three following conditions in their choice of food:
- Convenience
- Nutrition
- Affordability
Most foods can be mapped within these three axes:
(1, 2) This choice yields foods that fall under healthy foods that tend to be more expensive. An example would be purchasing freshly-made hummus from Whole Foods. Yes the hummus was extremely nutritional (having been made from Turkish eggplants) and it did not really inconvenience you all that much, but great, you just blew like $70 on hummus and artisanal bread.
(2, 3) If I wanted to make myself a healthy meal, I could avoid a trip to the grocery store and drive out to the local farm to meet my friend Ned who raises his own cows and lets me milk them in exchange for stories about the city (he’s never been there himself). Or I could also start growing my own plants in my garden, living off of them in the long-run through local foraging and hunter-gathering. But seriously, who has this luxury of time? Normal human beings only have so many hours to think about food every day so I’d rather let the free market do its thing and trust the benevolence of McDonalds to feed me.
(3,1) Foods that are highly affordable and readily accessible. Just think any kind of fast food really.
Thus, between these three axes you can map every kind of food.
Counter-example: “But what about Trader Joes?”
Trader Joes is an interesting creature, an anomaly that carries goods that are affordable, nutritious and convenient. Does this disprove the ML conditions?
Unfortunately not. Because of their incredible value, TJ’s tends to attract very long lines. I visited a friend who lives at Chelsea; the line to get TJ’s in the weekends are a life-and-death struggle. Thus the M-L conditions still hold because a trip to TJ’s isn’t that convenient with so many other shopper trying to push their way through lines, ruining your Sunday evening.
I thus conclude the Mundell-Lemming theorem. Thank you for humoring me.
Addendum: If the reader wonders the meaning behind my choice of name for this theorem, it is inspired by the Mundell-Fleming theorem (a really cool and useful theorem in monetary and financial economics) and the lemmings, a wonderful creature that must make these decisions everyday.
