President Biden has begun to accuse stores of overcharging shoppers, as food costs remain a burden for consumers and a political problem for the president.
Ad hominem aside, TheSanSabaSongbird’s basic point, that price controls are an economically illiterate idea, is right. Prices are an economy’s way of signalling scarcity, so messing with that signal prevents the underlying problem from being solved. Inflation has to be tackled through monetary and fiscal policy; the alternative approach, micromanaging prices, is how you get to the economy of Argentina.
Prices in capitalism are decoupled from scarcity through corporate profit seeking. In a perfect market falling supply costs would be passed on to the consumer. In our current economy they company eats the price difference and raises the price anyways
Ad hominem aside, TheSanSabaSongbird’s basic point, that price controls are an economically illiterate idea, is right. Prices are an economy’s way of signalling scarcity, so messing with that signal prevents the underlying problem from being solved. Inflation has to be tackled through monetary and fiscal policy; the alternative approach, micromanaging prices, is how you get to the economy of Argentina.
Prices in capitalism are decoupled from scarcity through corporate profit seeking. In a perfect market falling supply costs would be passed on to the consumer. In our current economy they company eats the price difference and raises the price anyways
No, you don’t understand. The invisible hand is attached to the wrist of God. Prices are never manipulated and gouging is a good thing.