4 ms·

The other element of surge pricing is that it encourages reallocation of resources to the places where they provide the most value. I'm not sure how you could a

The other element of surge pricing is that it encourages reallocation of resources to the places where they provide the most value. I'm not sure how you could achieve that benefit with rationing.

mitthrowaway2 3y ago
It's just that the value allocation is weighted by wealth; there's apparently no value whatsoever in providing essential life-sustaining services to people who can't afford to pay for it.
Eisenstein 3y ago
Is that a value? If you kept that line of thought then only cities would have cell towers or postal delivery, etc.
- jonhohle 3y ago
  Postal delivery is a government service legally required to provide coverage for all citizens including areas private delivery services don’t operate due to the cost of delivering to those locations. Cell service is private and there are certainly places, even places near major cities, that don’t have cell coverage. The western US is full of areas with no coverage whatsoever, even on highways. There are plenty of utilities that aren’t universally available (water, sewer, phone, cable, Internet, etc.) and are, in fact, limited to populated areas.
  - Eisenstein 3y ago
    My question was not 'does this exist anywhere' but 'is this a value'...
- vel0city 3y ago
  > only cities would have cell towers You ever actually look at a cellular availability map? https://fcc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6c1b2e73d9d749cdb7bc88a0d1bdd25b https://fcc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=...
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - yial 3y ago
    I think this map actually paints an optimistic coverage. I’m posting this from an area that shows coverage All around, but if I walk 1/2 mile down the road I won’t have reception for 20 minutes of drive time.
ggm 3y ago
Well in Leningrad during the siege (as it was at the time) they did that by sending more food rations to fighters. It sucked. So there's direct and literal command-economy ways to prioritise. There is a case to be made money is simpler. I'm not going to say I prefer sky faries to decide who gets AC and who doesn't. So, I suppose I'm just saying "value" here is a bit decoupled from "has money"
- hollerith 3y ago
  So, basically you don't have an answer to grandparent's objection to rationing.
jjoonathan 3y ago
The economic notion of value is wealth-weighted. It's true, rationing would struggle to maximize economic value by allocating to well-off hoarders and scalpers. But it also wouldn't properly incentivize consumption minimization, warehousing, and production, and that's the real rub. It's complicated. Just be careful about fudging "economic value = value," because this seemingly harmless approximation actually smuggles in an assumption on the scale of "free market can do no wrong."
- MichaelZuo 3y ago
  > The economic notion of value is wealth-weighted. No it isn't, nor was the parent necessarily restricting the scope to economics. Many animals such as beavers, bees, ants, dolphins, etc., have notions of value. Way before human society existed and likely will continue to have them long after.
8note 3y ago
Does it though? The main element of surge pricing is that it's temporary, which means not-important-for-non-emergencies
- Etrnl_President 3y ago
  Everyone has an equal chance to prepare for disaster while supplies are still cheap. You either pay now and buy in bulk, or you pay later.
mxkopy 3y ago
Conflating value with wealth is just dumb.
rasz 3y ago
So in emergency like this Texas will use its non existent links to national Grid to "reallocate resources to the places where they provide the most value"?

The other element of surge pricing is that it encourages reallocation of resources to the places where they provide the most value. I'm not sure how you could achieve that benefit with rationing.

mitthrowaway2 3y ago

It's just that the value allocation is weighted by wealth; there's apparently no value whatsoever in providing essential life-sustaining services to people who can't afford to pay for it.

Eisenstein 3y ago

Is that a value? If you kept that line of thought then only cities would have cell towers or postal delivery, etc.

jonhohle 3y ago
Postal delivery is a government service legally required to provide coverage for all citizens including areas private delivery services don’t operate due to the cost of delivering to those locations. Cell service is private and there are certainly places, even places near major cities, that don’t have cell coverage. The western US is full of areas with no coverage whatsoever, even on highways. There are plenty of utilities that aren’t universally available (water, sewer, phone, cable, Internet, etc.) and are, in fact, limited to populated areas.
- Eisenstein 3y ago
  My question was not 'does this exist anywhere' but 'is this a value'...
vel0city 3y ago
> only cities would have cell towers You ever actually look at a cellular availability map? https://fcc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=6c1b2e73d9d749cdb7bc88a0d1bdd25b https://fcc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=...
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- yial 3y ago
  I think this map actually paints an optimistic coverage. I’m posting this from an area that shows coverage All around, but if I walk 1/2 mile down the road I won’t have reception for 20 minutes of drive time.

ggm 3y ago

Well in Leningrad during the siege (as it was at the time) they did that by sending more food rations to fighters. It sucked. So there's direct and literal command-economy ways to prioritise. There is a case to be made money is simpler. I'm not going to say I prefer sky faries to decide who gets AC and who doesn't. So, I suppose I'm just saying "value" here is a bit decoupled from "has money"

hollerith 3y ago
So, basically you don't have an answer to grandparent's objection to rationing.

jjoonathan 3y ago

The economic notion of value is wealth-weighted. It's true, rationing would struggle to maximize economic value by allocating to well-off hoarders and scalpers. But it also wouldn't properly incentivize consumption minimization, warehousing, and production, and that's the real rub. It's complicated. Just be careful about fudging "economic value = value," because this seemingly harmless approximation actually smuggles in an assumption on the scale of "free market can do no wrong."

MichaelZuo 3y ago
> The economic notion of value is wealth-weighted. No it isn't, nor was the parent necessarily restricting the scope to economics. Many animals such as beavers, bees, ants, dolphins, etc., have notions of value. Way before human society existed and likely will continue to have them long after.

8note 3y ago

Does it though? The main element of surge pricing is that it's temporary, which means not-important-for-non-emergencies

Etrnl_President 3y ago
Everyone has an equal chance to prepare for disaster while supplies are still cheap. You either pay now and buy in bulk, or you pay later.

mxkopy 3y ago

Conflating value with wealth is just dumb.

rasz 3y ago

So in emergency like this Texas will use its non existent links to national Grid to "reallocate resources to the places where they provide the most value"?