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Funny thing is that socialism tends to reject religion, but price controls originated in Christian thought. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_price https://en

Funny thing is that socialism tends to reject religion, but price controls originated in Christian thought. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_price https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just_price What a lot of people don't realize is that prices aren't inherently good or bad in and of themselves, they just are. If somebody else is willing to pay 20k for a diamond, that's the price of a diamond. No amount of legislation or argument will drive down the price of a diamond to what it "should" be. See http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB10001424052702303460004579192100178248012 http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB100014240527023034600045791921.... The prices of electronics dropped in price after a governmental mandate. Guess what? After the store inventories were depleted, they never got any more TVs to sell.

cvwright 10y ago
> What a lot of people don't realize is that prices aren't inherently good or bad in and of themselves, they just are. If somebody else is willing to pay 20k for a diamond, that's the price of a diamond. Arguably, even the early Christian thinkers like Acquinas agree with you on this. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/08/15435/ http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/08/15435/
- jimmywanger 10y ago
  In theory, yes. But look at this following quote from the article: > but was simply the current market price, with this important reservation: in cases of collusion or emergency, the public authorities retained the right to interfere and to impose a fair price. In socialist governments, they see the free market as always "colluding" to cheat the working man. That's why they set unrealistically low prices for basic goods, like bread, and rail against producers for "colluding" because hey, most price costs about the same amount, so it has to be a coordinated effort while people are going hungry.
bpolania 10y ago
In Venezuela price control is not ideological is a stupid move to try to rein inflation.

cvwright 10y ago

> What a lot of people don't realize is that prices aren't inherently good or bad in and of themselves, they just are. If somebody else is willing to pay 20k for a diamond, that's the price of a diamond. Arguably, even the early Christian thinkers like Acquinas agree with you on this. http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/08/15435/ http://www.thepublicdiscourse.com/2015/08/15435/

jimmywanger 10y ago
In theory, yes. But look at this following quote from the article: > but was simply the current market price, with this important reservation: in cases of collusion or emergency, the public authorities retained the right to interfere and to impose a fair price. In socialist governments, they see the free market as always "colluding" to cheat the working man. That's why they set unrealistically low prices for basic goods, like bread, and rail against producers for "colluding" because hey, most price costs about the same amount, so it has to be a coordinated effort while people are going hungry.

bpolania 10y ago

In Venezuela price control is not ideological is a stupid move to try to rein inflation.