this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/19046336

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[–] ulkesh@lemmy.world 100 points 1 month ago (39 children)

Thing is…there is no real free market with proper competition, anyway. If there was such a thing, my groceries wouldn’t cost double now from what they were a mere five years ago (or quadruple, if looking at soda like Coke and Pepsi products). There is rampant collusion and price-fixing going on and not a damn government official seems to be doing anything about it. And yeah, the “but but the pandemic” excuse runs pretty thin as the years of this gouging continues.

[–] queermunist@lemmy.ml 61 points 1 month ago (23 children)

The truth is, a real market is never actually truly competitive. In an unregulated market, competing firms always collude with each other to set prices and wages for the industry. "Free market" ideology is based on nonsense, they've proven this over and over.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 2 points 1 month ago (19 children)

“Free market” ideology is based on nonsense, they’ve proven this over and over.

The theoretical model of the free market relies on perfectly rational actors acting on perfect information. If those are given, then resource allocation indeed is perfect.

Those conditions of course don't exist in the real world, best we can do is to regulate away market failures to approach the theoretical ideal. That's the kind of thing ordoliberalism argues for, and it can indeed work very well in practice. Random example: You want companies to use packaging with less environmental impact. You could have a packaging ministry that decides which company uses what packaging for what, creating tons of state bureaucracy -- or you could say "producers, you're now paying for the disposal of packaging yourself". What previously was an externality for those companies suddenly appears on their balance sheet and they self-regulate to use way more cardboard, easily recyclable plastics, whatnot.

[–] volodya_ilich@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

The theoretical model of the free market relies on perfectly rational actors acting on perfect information. If those are given, then resource allocation indeed is perfect.

That's not even remotely true. Natural monopolies exist because of how natural resources work, and oligopolies or undercutting of prices to destroy weak competition can happen with perfect knowledge by sellers and buyers.

[–] barsoap@lemm.ee 1 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

weak competition can happen with perfect knowledge by sellers and buyers.

It can't happen given perfect rationality as it's not in the rational interest of the majority to allow a minority their monopolies.

It's a fucking theoretical model. The maths check out, that's not the issue the issue is that it's theory, with very glaring limitations.

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