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> High quality goods? Too expensive to produce and lasts too long to be economically viable. I think that's a false dichotomy. Free markets typically produce h

> High quality goods? Too expensive to produce and lasts too long to be economically viable. I think that's a false dichotomy. Free markets typically produce higher-quality goods and services than non-free markets because quality is part of the dimensions among which firms compete. Throughout history, quality of goods in all kinds of areas have gone up when government restrictions were loosened and competition was allowed. Preventing a free market in housing benefits exactly one group: Those who are lucky/rich to already have such a nice big house.

bayindirh 4y ago
I'm not saying that the housing market should be regulated, however a Dutch model may improve things a lot. What I'm telling is, when I buy the same thing with x% of my income, in two different time frames, the latter item is of inferior quality, even if it's the same brand and model. This is because everything is optimized for economic turnover now. The previous dishwasher we had never seen a wrench in 20 years, it's only serviced to changed a brittle hose after two decades. Current one's water pump/heater/dryer unit is changed after ~10 years. Again, it's a long time, but its life span is shorter. Let's see how long this (original) replacement will last. The paper quality of the notebooks I get (yes, I write a lot) is always getting lower, despite price is going up. A good quality notebook is now more expensive than a tome of high quality printer paper. Higher end electronic devices (or goods in general) get more expensive in terms of relative income every year, and they almost keep the same quality of their previous selves. Optimization means less parts, less repairability, shorter life spans and more profits. Free market optimizes for maximum money movement (pressure), maximum profits for minimum costs. The goods become inevitably better (because the baseline improves inevitably), but slower than it should be. This improvement is due to integrated parts which has to be above a certain quality threshold to even work. I remember reading a comment about textile production: > Older textiles were much more durable because older machines were not able to lower quality this much. Now we can, so we do.

bayindirh 4y ago

I'm not saying that the housing market should be regulated, however a Dutch model may improve things a lot. What I'm telling is, when I buy the same thing with x% of my income, in two different time frames, the latter item is of inferior quality, even if it's the same brand and model. This is because everything is optimized for economic turnover now. The previous dishwasher we had never seen a wrench in 20 years, it's only serviced to changed a brittle hose after two decades. Current one's water pump/heater/dryer unit is changed after ~10 years. Again, it's a long time, but its life span is shorter. Let's see how long this (original) replacement will last. The paper quality of the notebooks I get (yes, I write a lot) is always getting lower, despite price is going up. A good quality notebook is now more expensive than a tome of high quality printer paper. Higher end electronic devices (or goods in general) get more expensive in terms of relative income every year, and they almost keep the same quality of their previous selves. Optimization means less parts, less repairability, shorter life spans and more profits. Free market optimizes for maximum money movement (pressure), maximum profits for minimum costs. The goods become inevitably better (because the baseline improves inevitably), but slower than it should be. This improvement is due to integrated parts which has to be above a certain quality threshold to even work. I remember reading a comment about textile production: > Older textiles were much more durable because older machines were not able to lower quality this much. Now we can, so we do.