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> 'no such thing as morality in markets' Is it okay to sell people? Do you own your children? If you own land, do you also own anyone who lives on that land?
by ClumsyPilot 5y ago
> 'no such thing as morality in markets'
Is it okay to sell people? Do you own your children? If you own land, do you also own anyone who lives on that land?
At various point in history answers to all of the above were yes.
Should we have a market for organs? There is a market for intellectual property, but what is intellectual property - maybe there should be a patent for everything that exists, say a pencil, and they should never ever expire. So noone except that owner should be allowed to make pencils.
Should we have laws against Dumping, self dealing, wash teading, antitrust, insider trading, tragedy of the commons, negative externalities, collusion, cartels, misselling?
All those behaviours arise naturally from markets.
- fleddr 5y agoI get your point but it's not very practical. Currently, a home is personal property and thus a market. The ownership of assets is a fundamental building block of a modern capitalist society. The point of owning a home is to have a house to live in, which you like and can customize to your liking. Another point/benefit is to take control of your living expenses and to be independent from a landlord. The fact that real estate prices are skyrocketing has nothing to do with the idea of home ownership, it's a side effect of an imbalance in supply and demand. Yes, some investors will abuse this imbalance to build wealth but the true root cause is the imbalance in itself that makes it possible. It's not rocket science. You cannot keep cramming ever more people in the same area. Supply will never meet demand. No amount of policy or taxation will solve this. The only structural long term solution is to address the demand side. It should not be required for half the population to move into a handful of cities just to have a decent job.