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Markets are not created by God. They are the result of laws and policies - as is also true of the distribution of income. We, as a society, can decide how we wa

by MrTonyD 10y ago

Markets are not created by God. They are the result of laws and policies - as is also true of the distribution of income. We, as a society, can decide how we want our economy to work. (There is plenty of literature describing how free market is a myth.) So "how markets work" in Paris will be with a 60% tax - hopefully it will achieve their goals - otherwise, they can try other things.

jimmywanger 10y ago
> We, as a society, can decide how we want our economy to work. To a point. Taxation tends to work as well as anything else in economic policy, but price controls and state ownership of production have almost never worked (as far as I can remember).
brightball 10y ago
Ehhh...free market is a myth is a bit of a myth. Free market hasn't really existed in our lifetime is more accurate. The free market is essentially a natural law. It's the root of economics. Policies and laws merely try to control portions of the formula and when they do that the reaction is predictable. Put price controls on something, demand will rise and supply will fall. Provide money for a service regardless of price without increasing supply, demand will increase and the price will along with it. Control the price and the supply, then as demand increases you create a market for access. These are the basic effects that have happened with education, health care, real estate, etc. Everytime policy tries to interfere, the market merely adjusts. When money is handed out from government policy, inflation happens. You can pass a law that gravity must behave differently...doesn't mean it can actually control it. The only controls that laws and policies have on markets is tampering.
- anigbrowl 10y ago
  This is a very simplistic view of markets, ignoring the fact that demand can be both cultivated and suppressed, elasticity of demand, and sufficiency of supply. Supply and demand give rise to Strange behavior (in the sense of equilibria following strange attractors), but claiming that all interaction is tampering is just the naturalistic fallacy over again. It reminds me of people who object to doctors because they believe medical intervention runs contrary to God's will.
  - brightball 10y ago
    What is cultivating or suppressing demand if not tampering? It doesn't change the formula. Marketing affects demand...but doesn't change the formula at all.
m52go 10y ago
You're right. I'm not a die-hard laissez-faire guy who says markets are godly and should never be manipulated. But...government isn't usually that logical. They already tried a tax and it didn't work.
- lhopki01 10y ago
  They tried a very low tax. 20% of monthly rent.
paulddraper 10y ago
Markets are created by God as much as the Hemilaya mountains. Sure, we could make Mt Everest look like whatever we want it to, but we'll be fighting nature to do so.

by MrTonyD 10y ago

jimmywanger 10y ago

> We, as a society, can decide how we want our economy to work. To a point. Taxation tends to work as well as anything else in economic policy, but price controls and state ownership of production have almost never worked (as far as I can remember).

brightball 10y ago

Ehhh...free market is a myth is a bit of a myth. Free market hasn't really existed in our lifetime is more accurate. The free market is essentially a natural law. It's the root of economics. Policies and laws merely try to control portions of the formula and when they do that the reaction is predictable. Put price controls on something, demand will rise and supply will fall. Provide money for a service regardless of price without increasing supply, demand will increase and the price will along with it. Control the price and the supply, then as demand increases you create a market for access. These are the basic effects that have happened with education, health care, real estate, etc. Everytime policy tries to interfere, the market merely adjusts. When money is handed out from government policy, inflation happens. You can pass a law that gravity must behave differently...doesn't mean it can actually control it. The only controls that laws and policies have on markets is tampering.

anigbrowl 10y ago
This is a very simplistic view of markets, ignoring the fact that demand can be both cultivated and suppressed, elasticity of demand, and sufficiency of supply. Supply and demand give rise to Strange behavior (in the sense of equilibria following strange attractors), but claiming that all interaction is tampering is just the naturalistic fallacy over again. It reminds me of people who object to doctors because they believe medical intervention runs contrary to God's will.
- brightball 10y ago
  What is cultivating or suppressing demand if not tampering? It doesn't change the formula. Marketing affects demand...but doesn't change the formula at all.

m52go 10y ago

You're right. I'm not a die-hard laissez-faire guy who says markets are godly and should never be manipulated. But...government isn't usually that logical. They already tried a tax and it didn't work.

lhopki01 10y ago
They tried a very low tax. 20% of monthly rent.

paulddraper 10y ago

Markets are created by God as much as the Hemilaya mountains. Sure, we could make Mt Everest look like whatever we want it to, but we'll be fighting nature to do so.