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Any attempts to solve problems by the invisible hand of the Almighty Free Market will fail abysmally when the plurality of people in that market are severely re

Any attempts to solve problems by the invisible hand of the Almighty Free Market will fail abysmally when the plurality of people in that market are severely resource-constrained. Right now, all most people can afford to care about is what's cheapest. Any supposed wisdom about "revealed preferences" is essentially bullshit because of that. If you want your much-vaunted Free Market Theory to bear any resemblance to reality, you will need to first ensure that 1) Everyone has a plentiful supply of disposable income, after all necessities and basic luxuries. 2) Participants in the market are mandated to fully disclose all pertinent attributes and conditions of their products and services—for instance, their ownership structure, how much lead, asbestos, and cadmium are in what they're selling, etc. 3) There are numerous participants in the market competing on roughly equal footing—that is to say, the market is not a monopoly or duopoly, or anything even vaguely close to that (dozens to hundreds of competitors, not just a handful—with, of course, the numbers dependent on the nature of the particular market). 4) The market in question has elasticity of demand—any attempts to "let the market decide" with things like housing and healthcare will always fail, at least to some extent, because people who lack them for an extended period of time will die, and thus effectively act under coercion. And note that these things are the absolute bare minimum required for a "free market" to operate anything like Free Market Theory says it should—other conditions can make it operate more smoothly and effectively. And it's entirely possible I'm forgetting some.

throwaway48476 1y ago
The reason PE buys them out is because they can make more money by jacking up the prices. If they had to publish their prices consumers would choose a cheaper option, ie not PE.
pdonis 1y ago
1) The best way to ensure this is to make the necessities of life (I'm not sure what you mean by "basic luxuries", but let's lump those both together for now) as cheap as possible. The main reason in our actual world that this does not happen has nothing to do with "free markets" and everything to do with governments putting their thumb on the scales and playing favorites. 2) The only reason you think this is necessary is that for many things, there are too few providers for competition to force all the providers to either provide this information or have no customers. And what's the reason for that? Governments putting their thumb on the scales and playing favorites. 3) Same response as 2). 4) You seem to be ignorant of the fact that, at least in the US, housing and healthcare were once provided in a free market--and given the technology of the time, the average quality was better than it is in the US today. The reason things are messed up today, again, has nothing to do with "free markets" and everything to do with government meddling. In other words, all the things you're complaining about are not failures of the "free market"; they're failures of government.

throwaway48476 1y ago

The reason PE buys them out is because they can make more money by jacking up the prices. If they had to publish their prices consumers would choose a cheaper option, ie not PE.

pdonis 1y ago

1) The best way to ensure this is to make the necessities of life (I'm not sure what you mean by "basic luxuries", but let's lump those both together for now) as cheap as possible. The main reason in our actual world that this does not happen has nothing to do with "free markets" and everything to do with governments putting their thumb on the scales and playing favorites. 2) The only reason you think this is necessary is that for many things, there are too few providers for competition to force all the providers to either provide this information or have no customers. And what's the reason for that? Governments putting their thumb on the scales and playing favorites. 3) Same response as 2). 4) You seem to be ignorant of the fact that, at least in the US, housing and healthcare were once provided in a free market--and given the technology of the time, the average quality was better than it is in the US today. The reason things are messed up today, again, has nothing to do with "free markets" and everything to do with government meddling. In other words, all the things you're complaining about are not failures of the "free market"; they're failures of government.