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vrganjyesterday at 8:07 PM2 repliesview on HN

I know this is not a popular viewpoint around here, but as a socialist, let me ask you this question: have we considered that the market itself might be the problem? That maybe the incentives it creates are toxic for humanity?


Replies

nyxtomyesterday at 8:40 PM

As a moderate, I tend to think things even out eventually - though it is usually what appears to be generational shifts in behavior that causes markets to adapt. It's costly (whole generations get f'd physically/mentally/financially), but the next generation (maybe?) pushes for something different idk

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intendedtoday at 4:01 AM

The lay understanding of markets is wrong.

The zeroth law of economics is that wants are infinite and resources limited. Economics is the study of how subjective wants can be best fulfilled given the constraints of reality.

Meaning that markets are always designed to achieve certain outcomes, and the idea of unregulated markets that work magically is fiction.

This is why you have (had) people like Lina Khan who identified how Amazon could be anticompetitive, even if kept prices low for customers. All markets have to be tuned, policed, kept clean and rules refreshed to achieve the outcomes we want as a society.

We design markets, and have the knowledge to do it well.