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Food didn't get harder to make, but the price of food went up around the world, and it still hasn't gone down to what it should be. Is there really any confusi
by Cushman 15y ago
Food didn't get harder to make, but the price of food went up around the world, and it still hasn't gone down to what it should be.
Is there really any confusion as to who lost their shirts?
- Tloewald 15y agoThere's an old economist joke that goes like this: What happened whe the Soviet Union gained control of the Sahara desert? For five years, nothing, then a shortage of sand. It seems we can replace Soviet Union in such jokes with Investment vehicles.
- Cushman 15y agoI don't see any reason to distinguish them. A free market means a free market. When one monolithic organization with access to controlling capital makes its goal not to preserve the freedom of the market, but to extract value from the rest of the market for itself and its shareholders, that's not a market. That's a centrally planned economy. The bankers have turned Communist oligarchs in all but name.
- z0r 15y ago> When one [...] organization with [...] capital makes its goal [...] to extract value from the rest of the market for itself and its shareholders Nope, just a regular capitalist enterprise
- Cushman 15y agoAnd fascism is just a regular government, and secret police are just regular police, and martial law is just regular law... You know -- since I've got you here anyway -- I've always wanted to tell you how much I loved your novels, Mr. Orwell.
- dantheman 15y agoActually you are incorrect, a free market is one in which people voluntarily interact for mutual gain, i.e. it is not coercive. If their is government interference then it is not a free market, cornering a market does not make it any less free if done solely through voluntary trade.
- Cushman 15y agoSo if I'm born into a world where someone has cornered the market on, let's say, food, and their perfectly rational strategy is to choose not to sell food to anyone who competes with them, I'm not any less free to compete than if one person didn't get to make that decision? Get outta here with that.
- anamax 15y ago> So if I'm born into a world where someone has cornered the market on, let's say, food Then you can ride away on your unicorn. The western world doesn't have food monopolies. The 2nd world occasionally does, but they're created by their govts. Of course, it doesn't help that the US govt decided to raise corn prices by subsidizing corn ethanol.
- Cushman 15y agoWhy is it that a subsidy (which pays farmers to grow one thing, then collects money from taxes progressively) is bad, but an investment (which pays farmers to grow one thing, then sells it at a high price once someone gets hungry enough to buy it, and pocketing the cash) is good?
- anamax 15y agoHuh? If you're going to claim two things are the same, it's good form to refer to them by their proper names before arguing similarity. And, if you're going to attribute a position to someone, you might want to have some evidence that they actually hold that position. (The fact that Hitler was bad does not imply that he killed puppies.) I'm against payments to farmers other than by folks voluntarily buying said farmer's output. That's a special case of a more general rule that applies to every work product. So I'm against "pays farmers to grow one thing" if it isn't money paid by folks who want and get said thing in exchange for said payment.
- anamax 15y ago> When one monolithic organization with access to controlling capital makes its goal The only organization that controls enough capital is govt.