Air Travel or Toilet Paper


[UPDATE September 21, 2008] "Toilet paper on a plane" was the spot-on verbal comment from a colleague during Friday's meeting of the New Jersey Geospatial Forum (NJGF) in Trenton.

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My economics professor at Rutgers University, John Pucher, used the “air travel vs. toilet paper” example to illustrate the concept of price elasticity of demand.  To oversimplify the concept – when there is less money to spend, people still buy toilet paper, but cut back on air travel.

In today’s tough economic times, as a GIS consulting business owner, I wonder whether GIS is more like air travel or toilet paper.

Thoughts?

Posted by Atanas Entchev at 9/17/2008 7:19 PM
Categories: blog, GIS, Business, General
Tags: blog GIS Business General
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  • 9/17/2008 8:06 PM John Reiser wrote:
    Depends on the business. Certain businesses depend on GIS technology for day-to-day tasks. For others, it's a specialized, marginal technology. They'll likely cut back, but I pity those that cut corners on GIS when it is as critical to their operations as email.
  • 9/18/2008 10:45 AM Chris wrote:
    I'm inclined to think that there are companies that depend on GIS technology - and then there are those that do not. Some will cut back on "luxury goods" while others see those goods and requirements to do business.

    As a GIS consultant too, and for the sake of my dinner plate, I hope GIS and remote sensing are more like toilet paper.

    I never thought I would get to post about GIS, my dinner plate, and my toilet paper in the same line.

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