when these combinations are graphed the slope of the resulting line is negative this means that the consumer faces a diminishing mrs the more hamburgers they have relative to hot dogs the fewer hot dogs they are willing to consume if the mrs of hamburgers for hot dogs is 2 then the individual would be willing to give up 2 hot dogs for every additional hamburger consumption 
limitations of the mrsthe mrs has a few limitations the main drawback is that it does not examine a combination of goods that a consumer would prefer more or less than another combination this generally limits the analysis of mrs to two variables as this is most often graphically depicted using only x and y variables other variables that may still factor consumption may not be appropriately considered mrs does not necessarily examine marginal utility since it treats the utility of both comparable goods equally though in actuality they may have varying utility in the example above consider how the utility of a hamburger with it s potential lettuce onion or other vegetable dressings may vary from that of a plain hot dog mrs vs mrtmrs is tied to the marginal rate of transformation mrt whereas mrs focuses on the consumer demand side mrt focuses on the manufacturing production side often the two concepts are intertwined and drive the other for example consider a global shortage of flour a manufacturer may be more inclined to bake less cakes and more bread as bread is a more efficient product to make based on material constraints as a result consumers may find cake shortages result in much higher prices this may in turn result in a stronger mrs between cake and bread as consumers may be enticed by lower costs of the over produced item on the other hand if consumers don t prove to have any reason to substitute bread for cake a manufacturer may be handcuffed into producing a less efficient good to meet market demand 