Economic implications for long-distance relationships

[ouwiyaru]

In learning about how the Texas-Mexican border-crossing market is changing, the post points to an economic theorem saying that high fixed costs favor higher-expense goods, and can allegedly describe long-distance relationships

Comments

[_wirehead_]

it seems like it's saying more that if you're going to be in a long-distance relationship (which has a high cost), you're going to choose to be in a high-quality one if you choose to pay that cost at all. which makes sense to me.

...because it is only worth the (transportation) costs for the most expensive high-quality wine relationship.

i think in general long-distance relationships are of higher average (perceived) quality, because they also require a greater amount of sacrifice, commuting costs, etc., so there's a correspondingly higher level of commitment required.

as far as them being more common when the cost of any relationship is high... i'm trying to think of an example of that. perhaps enlisted men? (who do, definitely, have a high proportion of LDRs.)

[_wirehead_]

er, not to be read as sexist; when i said "enlisted men" i was kind of thinking of stereotypes from WWII movies (the wounded soldier in the trenches with a picture of his girl-back-home in his pocket)... but i'm sure this applies to anyone in the military.

[ouwiyaru]

it seems like it's saying more that if you're going to be in a long-distance relationship (which has a high cost), you're going to choose to be in a high-quality one if you choose to pay that cost at all. which makes sense to me.
Yes, I think it makes sense in this direction. I think it makes less sense in the context of looking at the whole 'market' where the long-distance relationships are supposedly on the higher-quality side of all relationships.

I guess one way to say why it wouldn't apply here might be that relationships 'suffer in transportation'--that a long-distance relationship's quality degrades with distance rather than simply the cost.

i'm trying to think of an example of that.
The military one is good. I was also thinking of a rural area where someone with 'high standards' chooses to opt-out of the local market. Also, I was thinking of other high fixed-costs: for some people (myself included) entry into a relationship has a higher fixed emotional cost than for others :-)