This isn’t just a theoretical argument. Economists have studied this issue and worked out how, on average, a consumer affects total sales by declining to buy one unit of a product. They estimate that, on average, if you give up one egg, total production ultimately falls by 0.91 eggs; if you give up one gallon of milk, total production falls by 0.56 gallons. Other products are somewhere in between: if you give up one pound of beef, beef production falls by 0.68lb; a pound of pork: 0.74lb; a pound of chicken: 0.76lb.
