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Markets optimize for the needs of their participants. Most of the time it aligns with public good. The regulatory mechanism is what and from whom the participa

by t0suj4 4y ago

Markets optimize for the needs of their participants. Most of the time it aligns with public good. The regulatory mechanism is what and from whom the participants are willing to purchase.

colordrops 4y ago
> Most of the time it aligns with public good Fully disagree here. I could list a hundred egregious examples where this isn't true for major aspects of life, but it's late and I'm tired of arguing on the internet. Perhaps tomorrow I'll respond with examples.
- RealityVoid 4y ago
  The contest is if other people can list _more_ things where it _does_ align. And even if the misalignment is more frequent than alignment, are there any other systems that are better? I agreed with the general sentiment of your post and agree there are a lot of wrongly incentivized bahaviors in capitalism. It's just that finding workable alternatives is a challenge in of itself.
  - Akronymus 4y ago
    Reminds me of the quote that "democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried." Just replace democracy with capitalism and government with market.
jraph 4y ago
> Markets optimize for the needs of their participants They optimize for what they want, not what they need, which is a big difference. They would probably align with public good if it was the latter. Also, they optimize for what people who have money want. Participants want comfort (which we can't blame them for) and are not incentivized to solve poverty. Not saying that capitalism did not bring good stuff (won't state it neither), but part of the current result is global warming, pollution and the existence of people living in bad conditions.
- q-big 4y ago
  > but part of the current result is global warming Global warming is rather mostly a consequence of overpopulation. In the past, people often died of starvation or illnesses. "Unluckily" capitalism managed to reduce these problems by a lot. > and the existence of people living in bad conditions. In most communist countries, the living conditions were worse, so this is rather again a success story of capitalism.
goosedragons 4y ago
No it doesn't. FFS bakers used to adulterate their flour with crap like chalk because it was cheaper. And there's many many examples of things like that. The market optimizes for price and only in scenarios where competition doesnt have a high bar.
skrtskrt 4y ago
Speaking of naive
picsao 4y ago

by t0suj4 4y ago

Markets optimize for the needs of their participants. Most of the time it aligns with public good. The regulatory mechanism is what and from whom the participants are willing to purchase.

colordrops 4y ago

> Most of the time it aligns with public good Fully disagree here. I could list a hundred egregious examples where this isn't true for major aspects of life, but it's late and I'm tired of arguing on the internet. Perhaps tomorrow I'll respond with examples.

RealityVoid 4y ago
The contest is if other people can list _more_ things where it _does_ align. And even if the misalignment is more frequent than alignment, are there any other systems that are better? I agreed with the general sentiment of your post and agree there are a lot of wrongly incentivized bahaviors in capitalism. It's just that finding workable alternatives is a challenge in of itself.
- Akronymus 4y ago
  Reminds me of the quote that "democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried." Just replace democracy with capitalism and government with market.

jraph 4y ago

> Markets optimize for the needs of their participants They optimize for what they want, not what they need, which is a big difference. They would probably align with public good if it was the latter. Also, they optimize for what people who have money want. Participants want comfort (which we can't blame them for) and are not incentivized to solve poverty. Not saying that capitalism did not bring good stuff (won't state it neither), but part of the current result is global warming, pollution and the existence of people living in bad conditions.

q-big 4y ago
> but part of the current result is global warming Global warming is rather mostly a consequence of overpopulation. In the past, people often died of starvation or illnesses. "Unluckily" capitalism managed to reduce these problems by a lot. > and the existence of people living in bad conditions. In most communist countries, the living conditions were worse, so this is rather again a success story of capitalism.

goosedragons 4y ago

No it doesn't. FFS bakers used to adulterate their flour with crap like chalk because it was cheaper. And there's many many examples of things like that. The market optimizes for price and only in scenarios where competition doesnt have a high bar.

skrtskrt 4y ago

Speaking of naive

picsao 4y ago