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Who sets the price and what stops the very wealthy from buying it all and selling it for a giant profit. The further we go down this train of thought the less m
by jshen 8y ago
Who sets the price and what stops the very wealthy from buying it all and selling it for a giant profit. The further we go down this train of thought the less market-like it becomes very quickly.
- ip26 8y agoIt's a market. The first owner sets the price at whatever point they like, balancing their interests of revenue, protecting the resource, and so forth. If people are arbitraging & selling the water for increased prices, the first owner increases their price and eliminates the arbitrage opportunity.
- jshen 8y agoHow do you get a first owner for water?
- ip26 8y agoAre you being intentionally obtuse? I just described two ways. There's Right of first use, Riparian rights, and my pet illustrative example of treating it as a publicly held asset to be sold... There's other ways beyond those three, but the first two are how ownership is assigned in the US today.
- cbnotfromthere 8y agoYou're arguing with extreme left about markets.
- jshen 8y agoriparian rights is what led to the CA water wars where the wealthy from LA bought land up stream of the farmers in the owen's valley. It didn't solve the problem we're talking about regarding rich people buying up the water. I have no idea how first use could work for water, would be happy to read more if you link me to something about it. A quick googling returned nothing. The last one requires a lot more specifics to talk about meaningfully, but I'll bet that most of the free marketers wouldn't consider it a free market.