4 ms·
> And when production finds equilibrium with market demand, the price is back to normal (or even cheaper than before if there is too much product in the market)
by jschwartzi 6y ago
> And when production finds equilibrium with market demand, the price is back to normal (or even cheaper than before if there is too much product in the market).
Are you citing any data for this or are you just assuming this will happen? In my experience when production equals demand everyone continues selling at the ridiculously high prices for months. In a pandemic like this one that's months of watching the death toll climb.
There is a very real cost of sticking to a free market ideology when people are dying.
- trentnix 6y agoData? It's literally the definition of supply and demand. And when there is competition in the marketplace, lower prices and accepting smaller margins is inevitably used to gain competitive advantage. If prices stay artificially high (and uniform) across multiple manufacturers after there is plenty of product in the marketplace, then there may be collusion. Collusion is illegal and should be prosecuted accordingly. And to address your alarmism: if people are dying, it's safe to assume that a lack of PPE contributes to that. And people don't have PPE because the free market isn't being allowed to produce it. That's the point. I'm not the one "sticking" to an ideology.
- jiscariot 6y agoDuring a hurricane ("when people are dying"), which pricing model do you think keeps fuel re-suppliers taking on the associated risk to move gas in to the areas that most need it?