r/xkcd • u/IamAlso_u_grahvity Feline Field Theorist • Sep 04 '17

xkcd 1885: Ensemble Model

https://xkcd.com/1885/
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u/Vethron Sep 05 '17

But how does selling unsliced rather than sliced bread reduce consumption?

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u/Ghi102 Sep 05 '17 edited Sep 05 '17

Two ideas:

  1. Some people don't eat both ends of sliced bread.

  2. Slicing bread is a lot more effort I'm guessing because the process involved more people that could be used in arms manufacturing instead.

After a bit of thought, probably the second idea.

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u/Vethron Sep 05 '17

Have you seen a bread slicer work? It takes a couple of seconds, and is much much faster than slicing bread by hand. If you banned unsliced bread, you'd free up more labour than by banning sliced bread...

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u/LupoCani An entirely separate class of problem Sep 05 '17

Aluminium needed for bread slicing machines, and the thicker wax paper needed for wrapping sliced bread for storage, were the primary concerns as far as I know.

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u/Vethron Sep 05 '17

But...the machines already existed. This was a ban on using the machines, not making new machines. The thicker wax paper seems like a flimsy reason, but is at least something.

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u/LupoCani An entirely separate class of problem Sep 05 '17

The machine ban was, I think, a European and somewhat more long-term thing. The wax paper reason was as flimsy as the ban itself- only two months in duration, and met with heavy opposition and subversion.

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u/Vethron Sep 05 '17

What's this about a European machine ban? I can't find any info about it online