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The free market is right there, refusing to address shortages and price gouging you for essential supplies. A few people are getting rich and many people are be

The free market is right there, refusing to address shortages and price gouging you for essential supplies. A few people are getting rich and many people are being put at risk, but the free market is fine with this. Meanwhile, in South Korea, the government adopted a non-free-market solution and has been making KN95 masks available to its population through a combination of rationing and subsidies. Everyone has access to two masks a week, and the overwhelming majority of people wear them. South Korea has one of the lowest rates of infection in the world and is one of the few economies expected to grow in 2020.

gruez 6y ago
>The free market is right there, refusing to address shortages and price gouging you for essential supplies It's hardly a free market when there's anti price gouging laws.
- chillwaves 6y ago
  So if we let them take more advantage of the situation then it will improve?
  - erik_seaberg 6y ago
    Who’s going to invest anything in solving this problem, knowing we will indignantly refuse to compensate them? There would be stockpiles and reserve factory capacity if only we allowed them to be worth keeping.
  - gruez 6y ago
    Yes. If factories can hike prices, then they can recoup their investments faster. Right now there's little incentive for them to invest into expanding capacity, because the demand eventually dies down, and they never see a return on the sums they invested. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22789340 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22789340 >The common theme is that during an outbreak like this, everybody wants to be his customer. But as soon as an outbreak subsides, his customers dump him and run back to China. The reason? His masks may cost a dime each, but a made-in-China mask might go for two cents. >“Last time he geared up and went three shifts a day working his tail off,” the mayor recalled. “As soon as the issue died, he didn’t have any sales. He had to pay unemployment for all these people, and he had to gear down.”

gruez 6y ago

>The free market is right there, refusing to address shortages and price gouging you for essential supplies It's hardly a free market when there's anti price gouging laws.

chillwaves 6y ago
So if we let them take more advantage of the situation then it will improve?
- erik_seaberg 6y ago
  Who’s going to invest anything in solving this problem, knowing we will indignantly refuse to compensate them? There would be stockpiles and reserve factory capacity if only we allowed them to be worth keeping.
- gruez 6y ago
  Yes. If factories can hike prices, then they can recoup their investments faster. Right now there's little incentive for them to invest into expanding capacity, because the demand eventually dies down, and they never see a return on the sums they invested. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22789340 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22789340 >The common theme is that during an outbreak like this, everybody wants to be his customer. But as soon as an outbreak subsides, his customers dump him and run back to China. The reason? His masks may cost a dime each, but a made-in-China mask might go for two cents. >“Last time he geared up and went three shifts a day working his tail off,” the mayor recalled. “As soon as the issue died, he didn’t have any sales. He had to pay unemployment for all these people, and he had to gear down.”