Hello,
Could you provide some reasons why supply creates demand? I have been reflecting on this topic for a couple of days now and it seems to me that supply follows demand. It is worth noting that my idea only holds if we make no distinction between necessity and demand.
Let me illustrate my theory:
Individuals and societies always have natural needs. For example, washing clothe, drinking water or moving from one place to another. When people developed the need to wash their clothe they were probably going to the nearest river or body of water and scrub the dirt away by hand or something primitive of that sort. This method was very inefficient and physically demanding, as the individuals (probably women) had to dedicate a lot of time of their day to walk to the body of water and hand-wash every piece of clothe. Then, a creative and entrepreneurial individual observed the necessity for more efficient ways to wash clothe and decided to start working on some tool that would fulfill this need. He or she created the washing bat and the washing board, which created demand for those tools, and then went on even further to invent the washing machine which created demand for that specific technology. So, the supply of the washing machine created a demand for the washing machine but, in my opinion, no one would have ever invented such a technology if not for the existence of the need for better ways to wash clothe. In this case Supply arises from this necessity, which I see as the same thing as demand.
What are your opinions on this idea? Please ignore the facts of the story as this was not meant to be an illustration of the history of laundry but rather the idea was used to illustrate the main point I am trying to make. Supply arises from a necessity. Now, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post, if necessity is considered demand then I would argue that demand creates general supply. Then, some bright person goes on to develop some great technology to fulfill this need and thus creates demand for that specific item or technology, but the demand for something of that sort was already there. In other words, there is a demand for necessity goods that create supply, and then supply creates a demand for wants (which are goods people want but not necessarily need, like we need to drink water but not from an eco-friendly aluminum bottle).
Looking forward to a debate on the topic.
Kind regards.