• @unfreeradical
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    1 year ago

    when the cost of a product becomes too high for it’s true value, alternatives are created

    Now we discover your true understanding of “basic economics”, the magical thinking that the man on the television screen and the man behind the lectern told you was the final truth and the deepest wisdom, and that you believed because believing is what you wanted to do.

    which is why you’re probably on lemmy right now.

    Capitalism made the iPhone. I’m smart.

    Capitalism made Lemmy. I’m really smart.

    • @[email protected]
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      01 year ago

      I’m not saying or thinking any of that. I’m not talking here because i have the ultimate answer, im collecting different perspectives.

      • @unfreeradical
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        41 year ago

        You are not meaningfully collecting different perspectives, though, if you are dismissing others as not falling inside of your own construct of “basic economics”.

        I assume you are aware that economies have occurred historically not based on supply and demand.

        • @[email protected]
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          11 year ago

          Yes, they tend to fall under some sort of authoritarian system and usually still have free trade outside of the system. When supply and demand is discarded by government, people tend to die. So it seems to me that we can central power since the free market, while not ideal, is still better than the likely risk of corrupt power with all of the power.

          • @unfreeradical
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            31 year ago

            People are dying because the entire economy, the entirety of processes of production and distribution, is under massively centralized control, and driven by the profit motive, which is inimical to human survival and flourishing, in a word, corrupt.

            I have been browsing comments for the post quite aggressively, and have even read most of them now several times. I have found none advocating for supply and demand being “discarded by government”, nor any for expansion of authority.

            • @[email protected]
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              11 year ago

              waves hand

              I am actually advocating for supply and demand being “discarded by government” :)

              Sorry, I realized after clicking “reply” that you’re already someone I’m having a (slightly heated, sorry!) discussion with. I promise I’m not following you.

              But nonetheless, even Adam Smith (the founder of capitalism) had some problems with unrelated markets wrt necessities. We don’t have to go off the deep end to say “supply and demand economics should be discarded for food and healthcare if it’s the only way to stop poor people from dying inches away from trashbins full of food”

              • @unfreeradical
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                21 year ago

                The phrasing is intrinsically nebulous and rhetorically charged, useful more as a tactic for constructing a straw man than for advocating meaningful social change.

                • @[email protected]
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                  11 year ago

                  The phrasing is intrinsically nebulous and rhetorically charged

                  Really? I’ll be less nebulous. I think the government should step in and provide food to all Americans, setting a purchase price based upon actual cost to produce.

                  useful more as a tactic for constructing a straw man than for advocating meaningful social change.

                  I think you might be confusing me. Because it sounds like you’re saying I should lie and pretend I don’t want to undermine supply and demand because it would be easy for a dishonest interlocutor to make me look scary. I don’t like my side lying about our positions.

                  • @unfreeradical
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                    21 year ago

                    I think you might be confusing me. Because it sounds like you’re saying I should lie

                    You are not the one who chose the phrase. You expressed affinity for it, and I explained my concerns.