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That is super rad, and markets can be so dope, and nothing beats good fair service like that, but doesn't it also seem kind of crazy inefficient to have 5 diffe

That is super rad, and markets can be so dope, and nothing beats good fair service like that, but doesn't it also seem kind of crazy inefficient to have 5 different company's trash trucks running around the city? Maybe I'm wrong, but in terms of overall ecosystem input/output, I would guess that 1 system consumes way fewer resources than the sum of 5. I guess if the prices correspond to resource-use, then maybe it is actually more efficient overall? Crazy.

kortilla 5y ago
> but doesn't it also seem kind of crazy inefficient to have 5 different company's trash trucks running around the city? Why would you even think that? It’s going to be roughly the same number of employees, equipment, etc. The total amount of trash didn’t change.
- kyletns 5y ago
  The truck only has to drive down the street once, as opposed to 5 trucks driving down the same street?
  - kortilla 5y ago
    That’s a lot less wasteful than you think.
syshum 5y ago
In a perfect system, filled with perfect altruistic people, that always have perfect information, serving a community of people that all have the exact same needs then yes a monopoly would always be more efficient. We do not live in such as world. First My trash needs are not the same as my neighbors trash needs so a single program does not work for all people. Some people have more trash, some people have more recycling, some people have large items all the time, others do not, etc etc etc. This is one of the reasons your city probably does have more than 5 companies already doing service in it, as most cities only provide residential trash services, not commercial, to businesses have to contract out their own trash removal because all of their removal needs are even more varied than residential and a government program would never work Then there are other problems associated with monopolies that make them inefficient since they are divorced from the feedback loop of their customers. This is why there are very very few natural monopolies, because monopolies are inefficient even though on paper it seems like they would be the most efficient It is like socialism in that way, good on paper bad in reality. Monopolies are almost universally found due to some kind of government imposition, law or regulation that protects them.

kortilla 5y ago

> but doesn't it also seem kind of crazy inefficient to have 5 different company's trash trucks running around the city? Why would you even think that? It’s going to be roughly the same number of employees, equipment, etc. The total amount of trash didn’t change.

kyletns 5y ago
The truck only has to drive down the street once, as opposed to 5 trucks driving down the same street?
- kortilla 5y ago
  That’s a lot less wasteful than you think.

syshum 5y ago

In a perfect system, filled with perfect altruistic people, that always have perfect information, serving a community of people that all have the exact same needs then yes a monopoly would always be more efficient. We do not live in such as world. First My trash needs are not the same as my neighbors trash needs so a single program does not work for all people. Some people have more trash, some people have more recycling, some people have large items all the time, others do not, etc etc etc. This is one of the reasons your city probably does have more than 5 companies already doing service in it, as most cities only provide residential trash services, not commercial, to businesses have to contract out their own trash removal because all of their removal needs are even more varied than residential and a government program would never work Then there are other problems associated with monopolies that make them inefficient since they are divorced from the feedback loop of their customers. This is why there are very very few natural monopolies, because monopolies are inefficient even though on paper it seems like they would be the most efficient It is like socialism in that way, good on paper bad in reality. Monopolies are almost universally found due to some kind of government imposition, law or regulation that protects them.