Right on target. Isn't it amazing how ignorant humans work so hard to pretend the market can be suspended without causing horrible problems? Look at "price gouging" laws, which attempt to set selling prices just when it's most important to let the market function properly. I like the example of ice during an extended power failure: people who have medications such as insulin that must be kept cold would gladly pay an elevated market price to stay alive, but the government "helpfully" criminalizes selling for anything but the usual price, and therefore ice isn't available at all: nobody wants to take the trouble to supply it at what is temporarily a ridiculously low price. It frustrates me greatly that this point is lost on so many people.
Right on target. Isn't it amazing how ignorant humans work so hard to pretend the market can be suspended without causing horrible problems? Look at "price gouging" laws, which attempt to set selling prices just when it's most important to let the market function properly. I like the example of ice during an extended power failure: people who have medications such as insulin that must be kept cold would gladly pay an elevated market price to stay alive, but the government "helpfully" criminalizes selling for anything but the usual price, and therefore ice isn't available at all: nobody wants to take the trouble to supply it at what is temporarily a ridiculously low price. It frustrates me greatly that this point is lost on so many people.