Why Vices are recession resistant: an economic insight into Human desperation

From the Great depression to the 2008 financial crash, industries have collapsed, businesses have gone bankrupt and entire countries have borrowed to the hilt- digging themselves into bottomless holes of debt. However, through these pressing times while houses foreclosed leaving families to seek shelter and multi generational historically sound businesses disintegrate, one stream of businesses seems to not only resist worldwide depression but also profit- human vices.

Alcohol

Probably the leader of the proverbial pack. The worsts things get, the more people seem to want to drink. Most alcoholic products can be traced to just a few mass conglomerates giving a small amount of people the monopoly over the expanding market. Sure, when times are hard you may avoid the champagne, but research shows the people will just buy the cheaper options more times. It is all the same to the select companies that own every bottle bought.

Gambling

As unemployment increases, so does the amount of spare time and boredom in people's lives. Accompanied by the desperation and anxiety that are associated with gambling behaviour, this leads to more people rolling the dice. These factors combined with the easily accessible online sports betting websites make gambling pretty depression resistant.

Fast food

You would imagine a decrease in disposable income would result in less people eating out and choosing to cook hearty peasant like dishes at home, think again. With a plethora of cheap and easy fast food chains appealing to financially challenged demographics, many people are opting for low quality processed cheap food over cooking at home. During the economic recession of 2008, McDonalds grew its value per share by 26%.

Drugs

While difficult to precisely economically pinpoint due to its legal grey area, it is no surprise that substance abuse rises dramatically with a negative downturn in the economy. Perhaps most ironically, the decrease in legal employment forces some people to turn to illegal activities to make ends meet. This results in a higher sales force of drug dealers and wider availability, almost forming a micro economy. Combined with depression, lost of housing or jobs, and increased free time and stress levels more people turn to drugs during the hard times. The list goes on and it is obvious each of these aspects does not showcase humanities finer moments but the industries behind these vices can rest assured they have some job stability.

This article does not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors or management of EconoTimes.