So, the answer is "more guns". Right. If you can't beat them, kill them. I'm not sure if you're conservative, or communist. That seems to be right in line with the thoughts of every single dictator known to man.
You say I don't understand demand, yet you say pretty much exactly what I've said, to correct my misunderstanding of demand. Hmmm.....
Plain and simple - supply and demand. The model for all economics. Where supply and demand meet, you get the equilibrium price. We experience this in day to day items like detergent, toothpaste, etc. The market has set the price, the consumer buys the item, and if they don't like the price of Brand A, they buy the cheaper brand B, and Brand A either goes out of business, or changes their price to reflect the market. Ivory - there is a shortage of "supply", because your supply source is a living, breathing animal. Similar to sheep's wool. The issue with ivory is that it had the "potential" to be a sustainable resource. We can shear a sheep many times. Virgin wool is the first cut, but other cuts of the sheep's coat are still functional. We could just wait for the tusks to fall off, harvest them, without issue.
However, when demand exceeds supply, higher prices can be demanded, due to the economic phenomenon called "scarcity". If you have one item that 10 people want, you can charge more, because consumers will compete with each other. This is what has occurred in the ivory market. Your source of ivory is dwindling on a daily basis, because a dead elephant cannot produce ivory. Meanwhile, the world population is increasing. So, you have more people bidding for less resources. That is why the price is high, and it will do nothing but get higher. The reason poaching is even a viable business is because of this ridiculous world market value of ivory. $1500-2000 per pound, times 150 pounds (weight of a tusk) times 2 (two tusks) is $450-600k. That's the economic value of an African Elephant. That buys a lot of guns for a warlord in Africa. So, regardless of what you think about you and your "needs", and how they don't contribute to the killing of those elephants all over the world....the simple fact that you will pay a ludicrous sum of money for the "pre ban" ivory sets the water mark for the fair market value of ivory...which in turn allows a warlord to do some simple math, and figure out that killing elephants is pretty darn economically profitable, although short lived.
Did I make that simple enough for you to follow? I can hardly wait to hear what part I screwed up this time....
