3 ms·

You'd need to make a strong argument to convince me that situation would actually be much better than the one we have currently. At least with the current price

You'd need to make a strong argument to convince me that situation would actually be much better than the one we have currently. At least with the current price-gouging laws, we're able to semi-select for the people who are willing to spend the most time pursuing goods, which has a much better correlation with actual need than who's willing to spend the most money. Furthermore, I'm not entirely convinced that removing price gouging laws would really prevent these sort of events. Capitalism has a tendency to optimize for the short term, and to select for firms that are perfectly optimized for the current environment, however unrepresentative that may be. Sure, counterculture firms exist, but there's rarely enough of them to make a big dent, and the markets often remain irrational longer than they can remain solvent.

Guthur 6y ago
The problem is that markets, controlled or free, are at a level of complexity far beyond our capacity to effectivel control from a top down perspective, there have been countless examples with top down legislation have had unforeseen consequences (or overtly controlled markets in Soviet Union). The idea with free market capitalism is that as much as possible the transactions/pricing between parties should allow for systemic optimisation. There are two main problems, a) not all transactions are captured appropriately, b) we fuck with the system from a top down perspective so much as to completely undermine the premise of the low level optimisation. Oftentimes it's in relation to (a) that we do (b), in (b) we should be aiming to provide recompense to the side of the hidden transaction via the government; unfortunately the government oversteps here and tries to optimise the system themselves.
jacobr1 6y ago
There seem to be two cases. Rare, but on human scales regularly reoccurring disasters (hurricanes in the east, fires in the west, etc ...) and more-rare "black-swan" events, basically 100+ frequencies. The more regular disasters seem to be dealt with in markets. Insurance companies will have requirements to reimbursement, some companies will stockpile goods, multi-region firms will have DR plans etc. Alternatively governments regulations can require preventative measures and have stockpiles in place. In practice both happen to varying degrees of success. Price gouging allows for more inter-region support on a for-profit basis, but probably also disincents some charitable actions. On net we probably should allow "entrepreneurial gouging" (like a guy buying a water truck in a non-disaster area, driving it to a disaster area and charging high prices) It might be distasteful, but if it is providing net-benefit of otherwise unattainable resources that is still better. But companies organizing and planning around this, seems much more sinister. Like the water company charging more for potable water, rather than spending their time and effort fixing the system for everyone. That type of thing is probably better prohibited and regulated. But the more rare events, nobody seems to handle well. Governments and private enterprises alike tend to only prepare for the last crisis. I'm not sure there is a government vs private comparison, so much as a human failure. I suspect good government regulation is going to be better, because it can sustain longer-term initiatives, but getting the policy to be "good" and not corrupted by grift is difficult, especially with out the feedback loop of reality.

Guthur 6y ago

The problem is that markets, controlled or free, are at a level of complexity far beyond our capacity to effectivel control from a top down perspective, there have been countless examples with top down legislation have had unforeseen consequences (or overtly controlled markets in Soviet Union). The idea with free market capitalism is that as much as possible the transactions/pricing between parties should allow for systemic optimisation. There are two main problems, a) not all transactions are captured appropriately, b) we fuck with the system from a top down perspective so much as to completely undermine the premise of the low level optimisation. Oftentimes it's in relation to (a) that we do (b), in (b) we should be aiming to provide recompense to the side of the hidden transaction via the government; unfortunately the government oversteps here and tries to optimise the system themselves.

jacobr1 6y ago

There seem to be two cases. Rare, but on human scales regularly reoccurring disasters (hurricanes in the east, fires in the west, etc ...) and more-rare "black-swan" events, basically 100+ frequencies. The more regular disasters seem to be dealt with in markets. Insurance companies will have requirements to reimbursement, some companies will stockpile goods, multi-region firms will have DR plans etc. Alternatively governments regulations can require preventative measures and have stockpiles in place. In practice both happen to varying degrees of success. Price gouging allows for more inter-region support on a for-profit basis, but probably also disincents some charitable actions. On net we probably should allow "entrepreneurial gouging" (like a guy buying a water truck in a non-disaster area, driving it to a disaster area and charging high prices) It might be distasteful, but if it is providing net-benefit of otherwise unattainable resources that is still better. But companies organizing and planning around this, seems much more sinister. Like the water company charging more for potable water, rather than spending their time and effort fixing the system for everyone. That type of thing is probably better prohibited and regulated. But the more rare events, nobody seems to handle well. Governments and private enterprises alike tend to only prepare for the last crisis. I'm not sure there is a government vs private comparison, so much as a human failure. I suspect good government regulation is going to be better, because it can sustain longer-term initiatives, but getting the policy to be "good" and not corrupted by grift is difficult, especially with out the feedback loop of reality.