The Economic Way of Thinking 13th Edition by David Prychitko, Peter Boettke, Paul Heyne

Exercise 9

A letter to the editor of a newspaper from a citizen interested in curbing Americans' consumption of gasoline recommends the elimination by law of nonessential uses and mentions as an example, reducing rural mail deliveries to fewer than six days per week. Would we be eliminating a nonessential use of gasoline if all rural carriers took Saturdays off? Why don't we eliminate Tuesday and Thursday deliveries as well and save even more gasoline?