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Enterprises have to cope with price increases all the time. My friends building houses have seen the price for iron multiplying over the year, but construction

by nickpp 4y ago

Enterprises have to cope with price increases all the time. My friends building houses have seen the price for iron multiplying over the year, but construction still goes on. Some businesses die but the others adapt and find solutions. It’s where human creativity and innovation shines. An expensive item is a great motivator to find alternatives.

wizofaus 4y ago
And without water, some people die but the others...wash less and let their gardens and crops die? What sort of alternative do you think expensive water would be a great motivator for us to find?
- WalterBright 4y ago
  Desalination plants, for example.
  - wizofaus 4y ago
    We have those in Australia. Free enterprise had nothing to do with it, in fact it would have been a terrible investment (and yes, it was a a questionable use of taxpayer money, at least so far). But that you could supply a city the size and distance from the ocean of Phoenix with affordable constant supply of water with desalination plants seems a stretch.
- nickpp 4y ago
  And without food, some people die but it was the free markets who brought us this incredible array of cheaper and cheaper options while planned economies couldn't keep their citizens from starving.
  - wizofaus 4y ago
    "Food" is a vastly broader category of possible substitutable commodities than water is. And it's a stretch to claim it's entirely the work of free markets that ensures our food supply - agriculture is pretty heavily subsidised in most modern economies. I'm quite willing to accept that we would see some more innovative ways of supplying water to cities if there was less public control over it. I also agree that water should be more expensive in places that it's hard to supply to (which should help discourage too many people from living there) - but no government is going to let its voters die of thirst, and is just as strongly motivated to maintain supply as competing private enterprises might be.

by nickpp 4y ago

wizofaus 4y ago

And without water, some people die but the others...wash less and let their gardens and crops die? What sort of alternative do you think expensive water would be a great motivator for us to find?

WalterBright 4y ago
Desalination plants, for example.
- wizofaus 4y ago
  We have those in Australia. Free enterprise had nothing to do with it, in fact it would have been a terrible investment (and yes, it was a a questionable use of taxpayer money, at least so far). But that you could supply a city the size and distance from the ocean of Phoenix with affordable constant supply of water with desalination plants seems a stretch.
nickpp 4y ago
And without food, some people die but it was the free markets who brought us this incredible array of cheaper and cheaper options while planned economies couldn't keep their citizens from starving.
- wizofaus 4y ago
  "Food" is a vastly broader category of possible substitutable commodities than water is. And it's a stretch to claim it's entirely the work of free markets that ensures our food supply - agriculture is pretty heavily subsidised in most modern economies. I'm quite willing to accept that we would see some more innovative ways of supplying water to cities if there was less public control over it. I also agree that water should be more expensive in places that it's hard to supply to (which should help discourage too many people from living there) - but no government is going to let its voters die of thirst, and is just as strongly motivated to maintain supply as competing private enterprises might be.