Newspaper vending machines are often built so that customers can pay to lift a door and take a paper off a pile of daily newspapers. Newspaper distributors are NOT concerned about customers taking the whole stack of papers because
A) the total utility of a daily newspaper is zero.
B) the marginal utility of any one daily newspaper is zero.
C) the marginal utility of a second daily newspaper is zero.
D) the price of a daily newspaper is relatively low.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

The distributors are not concerned about customers taking the whole stack of papers because the marginal utility of a second daily newspaper is zero. This means that the customer would not derive any additional satisfaction from taking a second newspaper, and therefore would not have any incentive to do so. Additionally, newspaper prices are relatively low, so the loss to the distributor would not be significant even if someone did take the entire stack.

Newspaper Vending Machines Are Often Built So That Customers Can