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> If my choice is to pay for cancer treatment or die, you can (and do) charge me literally whatever you want in a capitalist system One provider might charge a
by crazy1van 7y ago
> If my choice is to pay for cancer treatment or die, you can (and do) charge me literally whatever you want in a capitalist system
One provider might charge a fortune. But then another will come along and realize he can get all this business by charging slightly less than a fortune. Then another comes along and charges slightly less. And so on until they are charging just enough to make a slight profit.
That’s how a healthy market works. But if you put up tons of barriers and rules about who can provide a service and how the service must be performed, the whole competitive system breaks down.
- SolaceQuantum 7y agoThat’s how a healthy market works. But if you put up tons of barriers and rules about who can provide a service and how the service must be performed Sorry, are you referring to proving that treatments have effect, doctors being licensed, something else?
- staticautomatic 7y agoNo, that's how a free market is supposed to work but no one's ever seen a free market in the wild.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- mrep 7y agoMost agriculture markets are extremely competitive such that they are basically perfect competition.
- arcticbull 7y agoMight I suggest perusing the Farm Bill? The government is literally paying farmers to grow crops people wouldn’t pay for. That doesn’t sound like a very free market system... frankly I wish they’d stop.
- mrep 7y agoThat's to insure we aren't undersupplied on food and famines caused by a bad season/trade with another country are absolutely terrible. Seems like a cheap insurance for a terrible possible outcome especially considering that any consistent oversupply from the subsidies will get weeded out due to the subsidies. Would you prefer a shortage of food every few years?
- arcticbull 7y agoThat hardly supports your argument that it’s a free market, and that’s the point I was making. The rest was an aside. I don’t know there’s evidence that not subsidizing corn (the vast majority isn’t for human consumption anyways) to below the cost of production is the only way you ensure lack of famine. Either way I’m not sure why this socialism is okay but medicine is beyond the pail. For instance grain crops can be stored long-term by the government [1] and of course so can raisins [2]. None of this has to do with the farm bill. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_grain_reserve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_grain_reserve [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Raisin_Reserve https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Raisin_Reserve