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>> Markets do not optimize for ethical behaviour This is speculation and pedantry, but: What if they do? What if they already weed out 90% of it, and the remai

>> Markets do not optimize for ethical behaviour This is speculation and pedantry, but: What if they do? What if they already weed out 90% of it, and the remaining stuff that you notice is the optimal amount given the cost to weed it out (no matter how said weeding is done).

vkou 4y ago
Pedantic counter-example and Exhibit A: The endless litany of unraveled crypto scams that keep getting bigger and better, year over year. There's one that's going bust right now. It's the poster child for a perfect market environment, where everyone involved is simply trying to optimize their returns, and there are next to no rules. It's also full of hucksters, thieves, conmen, liars, and flat-out frauds, to the utter detriment of any legitimate commerce in the space.
- danielmarkbruce 4y ago
  You don't think the market could sort this out through time? Free market believers don't think the market will sort out every problem overnight - it is pretty much the belief that the bad players get shaken out over time. The harder ones seem to be healthcare (massive info asymmetry) and anything related to pollution (externalities). The market has had time on those and not done so well.
danaris 4y ago
Even if they did, it would be idealized free markets that did that. Not the very much non-ideal, largely non-free markets we have, rife as they are with information asymmetry, non-commodity products, buyers with urgent time needs, and a host of other aspects that utterly invalidate the Free Market Will Solve Everything gospel that so many try to preach.
- danielmarkbruce 4y ago
  The argument isn't that the free market will solve everything. It's that there isn't a better solution. It's a lower bar.
  - danaris 4y ago
    Well, that's trivially falsifiable. A competently regulated market is better than a "free" (ie, unregulated) market in nearly all situations.
    - danielmarkbruce 4y ago
      On what planet does one falsify a claim by simply making the opposite claim?

vkou 4y ago

Pedantic counter-example and Exhibit A: The endless litany of unraveled crypto scams that keep getting bigger and better, year over year. There's one that's going bust right now. It's the poster child for a perfect market environment, where everyone involved is simply trying to optimize their returns, and there are next to no rules. It's also full of hucksters, thieves, conmen, liars, and flat-out frauds, to the utter detriment of any legitimate commerce in the space.

danielmarkbruce 4y ago
You don't think the market could sort this out through time? Free market believers don't think the market will sort out every problem overnight - it is pretty much the belief that the bad players get shaken out over time. The harder ones seem to be healthcare (massive info asymmetry) and anything related to pollution (externalities). The market has had time on those and not done so well.

danaris 4y ago

Even if they did, it would be idealized free markets that did that. Not the very much non-ideal, largely non-free markets we have, rife as they are with information asymmetry, non-commodity products, buyers with urgent time needs, and a host of other aspects that utterly invalidate the Free Market Will Solve Everything gospel that so many try to preach.

danielmarkbruce 4y ago
The argument isn't that the free market will solve everything. It's that there isn't a better solution. It's a lower bar.
- danaris 4y ago
  Well, that's trivially falsifiable. A competently regulated market is better than a "free" (ie, unregulated) market in nearly all situations.
  - danielmarkbruce 4y ago
    On what planet does one falsify a claim by simply making the opposite claim?