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55Incentives

Jevons Paradox

Efficiency can increase total consumption.

If

Making a resource cheaper to use per unit lowers its effective price and can raise total consumption instead of lowering it — the efficiency gain is spent on more usage rather than banked as savings.

Then

When you make something cheaper — compute, storage, an internal API — expect demand to balloon; provision and budget for the rebound instead of assuming a net reduction.

Unless

Cap the Rebound — pair efficiency with a quota, cap, or price signal to actually capture the savings

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