By the time the lawsuit against standard oil had concluded, they had lost market share, because price fixing doesnt work in real life, as more than a few industrialists have had to learn the hard way. Rents and mortgages are too high, but you are looking in the wrong place thinking housing costs are high due to price fixing.
Yeah you're gonna need some pretty strong support to make a claim like that - and not just an anecdote from the internet. Do you have any new proof upending long solidified economics?
I would recommend going beyond Econ 101, as well as observing the real world and reams of empirical evidence. Housing is not a perfectly competitive market for widgets with an abundance of sellers where everyone has perfect information and there are no transaction costs. "(illegal behavior X) could never happen because markets" is freshman dorm at UChicago thinking
I submit that the long term issues we are having in the united states, are in fact the result of short term solutions. Also, standard oil controlled more like 90% of the market, so in that context they had lost more like 25% by the time the trial concluded.
I'm pretty pro-market, but Standard Oil used a lot of techniques to fix prices. Having a lot of refinery control and the ability to undercut anyone who didn't play ball with them (and thus kill the small independent) did happen. They didn't need a true monopoly, just enough power to tank any smaller company that tried to undercut them.
If you're interested in the subject, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power by Daniel Yergin is a fascinating read.
Its a book on basic economic reasoning, price signals, competition, those things are covered from a principled basis, sorry if it doesnt ctrl+f to tell you how irrational the idea of price fixing is.
You make an interesting point. While the concept is never introduced in the book, the sum total of the information of the book is that price fixing doesn’t work.
How do I square that with the lesson that I learned from the Bible? While price fixing is not mentioned in it it is pretty clear that it says that price fixing works
Well, I wouldnt belittle you for getting your economic education, the bible, Qur'an and others have discussed some economic matters; though, it may be advisable to consult one of the best economic textbooks regarding economic matters.
You know, maybe some people arent cut out for economics, but, the spirit of rothbard compels me, economic education is for the masses so I will provide a quote from chapter 2, prices and cost subsection.
"While you may put whatever prices you wish on the goods and services you provide, those prices will become economic realities only if others are willing to pay them, and that depends not on whatever prices you have chosen, but on how much consumers want what you offer, and on what other producers charge for the same goods and services."
So, maybe the 6th edition could be better equipped for ctrl+f economists, with all the communist propaganda words indexed to subsections.
We both agree that price fixing does not need to be mentioned in a book for that book to be clearly obvious in its position on it, and also that any book that mentions anything tangential to price fixing can contain an immutable and unarguable truth about it that becomes apparent only to those with the intellectual capacity to glean its hidden meanings.
I’m not really sure why you would impugn my mind for economics but perhaps since “read a book” qualifies as an argument, I might recommend that you try out The Living Bible? It is written in a plain English for those that may struggle with the vocabulary of the King James Version. There is no shame in not being able to get the clear and obvious message here, but thankfully the Good Book has versions for every level of reader :)
Oh, my bad, I assumed you were trying to be belligerent on basic economics not containing this information. Id actually be happy to adopt just about any world religions economic regulation, as opposed to what we have today.
We’re not discussing religious economics writ large. We’re discussing your book’s position on price fixing and my much more popular book’s position on price fixing.
I look forward to hearing your thoughts after reading it!
I still believe treatment centers would be preferable, I just dont think its reasonable to expect that to happen. Requiring sobriety tests helps, I would suppose, the people that are actually interested in getting better, though many homeless allegedly avoid shelters because of the requirements.
I can speculate on a few things that would reduce the rate of homelessness, economy, civil society, religion, but incarceration (where treatment is refused) seems like the only way to stop the cities from bleeding; open air drug use wouldnt be tolerated on private property (and where it is, fine, be my guest, I smoke, at home), it shouldnt be tolerated on public property either, dont be a menace.
Dude its called air conditioning, and we can grow the world economy to put it in every hut in africa within the decade if people are free, its impossible to "reverse" the effects havent you heard?
// we can grow the world economy to put it in every hut in africa within the decade //
A refresher in thermodynamics is in order here....thermal energy is...energy, which is a conserved quantity. Heat doesn't just disappear. An air conditioner cools the inside air by making the outside air hotter.
And (thermodynamics strikes again) it also creates yet more waste heat in the process.
// if people are free //
Doesn't matter how free people or the markets are, thermodynamics is for real. We are not air-conditioning our way out of this.
I can't make much sense of your comment. It sounds like you're proposing that we air condition anywhere affected by warming. What about farmer's fields? Oceans? Do you know how many people work outside to keep you in air conditioned comfort?
Even if that were possible, humanity has shown that we will only do something worldwide when we're absolutely forced to. We will not be able to do that while dealing with the disasters that come with global climate catastrophe and ecological collapse.
I believe only reactors used in the navy have this characteristic, the poison transients from adjusting load to quickly (and maybe having to shim for temperature) on a commerical reactor are liable to cause an unplanned shutdown.
Yea, it can take your life, your children, your freedom, and your dignity right along with the wealth. You harbor a view of "positive rights", that you are entitled to property that belongs to someone else; positive rights stand in direct conflict with negative rights, things that you are free from, like censorship, or search and seizure. Negative rights create economic cooperation and create robust societies with diverse opportunities, positive rights create bread lines and mass murder.
Hmmm, from a manufacturing prespective this is probably the safest way too, because you have already scaled production, you arent suddenly trying out all these new manufacturing processes when starship enters production. All your processes have been continuously validated already.
Unfortunately not off the top of my head, but I know scott horton has discussed it at length, "Enough already" probably has the sauce. I wasnt trying to correct anyone, thats just how I remember the events and was curious if anyone had any input.
Well the bit about bin laden and alqueda is certainly true to my knowledge. The government will only admit to funding the Taliban, not alqueda, but they are on record contributing quite a bit to one of the highest ranking members in alqueda, and its hard to imagine things don't get messy when you start delivering weapons to guerillas.
