Bigred's Video Game Thread

[Jack Sawyer]

The best I can tell is that the type of thing one would seek out to show government could make people better off on a particular issue is that, if for some reason attributed to government, like its scale or scope, it is able to set a policy that reduces information asymmetries in the market and peoples' lives that the market and those people otherwise can't. I've been trying to find something that fits for a while. Do you have any ideas?

... healthcare?

[wufwugy]

... healthcare?

I think the only thing I can think of would be mandatory health savings accounts. This would be because young people or just people in general might not understand health related risks as well as a group of policymakers might. Of course that begs the question that the policymakers would only know better if they were put in power by the private sector that knows better enough to put the knows-betters into power. The idea that government can make a better world than the private markets may be a tautology.

[Jack Sawyer]

I think the only thing I can think of would be mandatory health savings accounts. This would be because young people or just people in general might not understand health related risks as well as a group of policymakers might. Of course that begs the question that the policymakers would only know better if they were put in power by the private sector that knows better enough to put the knows-betters into power.

Because it always ends up at or near crony capitalism. Where the know-betters just keep raising prices of stuff that people need to literally live

I cannot have any faith in such a system

The idea that government can make a better world than the private markets may be a tautology.

Only if all you ever do is distrust the government, then yes, this statement makes sense. What I see from following US politics as of late, I see where you are coming from, but I also see kind of where you are headed

Also, LOL Republican Tax Plan, and LOL Democrats negotiating by dealing away their leverage. It's just one big sad LOL right now. I hope you guys get out of it unscathed, as China is in the on-deck circle and Mandarin is kind of difficult to learn; let's not even mention Cantonese

/derail

[wufwugy]

Because it always ends up at or near crony capitalism. Where the know-betters just keep raising prices of stuff that people need to literally live

Crony capitalism is when business and government buddy up.

I'm not sure what you're calling crony capitalism. Free market capitalism and crony capitalism are opposites.

[Jack Sawyer]

Crony capitalism is when business and government buddy up.

I'm not sure what you're calling crony capitalism. Free market capitalism and crony capitalism are opposites.

Ok wuf, explain to me 2 things please.

1) How will a fully free market avoid going in the crony capitalism phase? As a firm gets big enough, it can just buy its competition and raise prices as it sees fit, correct? In a free market, how will this not happen?


2) How would a fully free market avoid the Daraprim situation?

I have more, but these two will suffice for now. I'm off to watch star wars, so I'll probably be drunk AF tonight to continue discussing

[spoonitnow]

1) How will a fully free market avoid going in the crony capitalism phase? As a firm gets big enough, it can just buy its competition and raise prices as it sees fit, correct? In a free market, how will this not happen?

These are two completely different issues. This is not an example of crony capitalism.

[wufwugy]

Ok wuf, explain to me 2 things please.

1) How will a fully free market avoid going in the crony capitalism phase?

That would probably require enough people discarding the anti-market bias so that they don't encourage intrusive government.

As a firm gets big enough, it can just buy its competition and raise prices as it sees fit, correct?

No, firms can't do that. We can discuss why that is if you would like.

2) How would a fully free market avoid the Daraprim situation?

This situation is a good sign that the market is working to make things better. Here's an economist explaining why price gouging improves lives while not allowing price gouging harms lives.

http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/..._on_price.html

I can go a bit more into it than he does in this brief article if you would like.

[Jack Sawyer]

No, firms can't do that. We can discuss why that is if you would like.

I wonder what it is Amazon's doing right now