Re:How Puerto Rico Became a Tax Haven for the Super Rich
by wwweston on Tuesday September 18, 2018 @09:33PM
(#18020945)
It's certainly true enough that high prices activate substitution & rationing, and are a powerful motivating force to bring more supply to bear.
Whether shortages necessarily follow that depends heavily on whether there is any other motivating force in play along with institutions prepared to respond to it. In other words -- does a given society only have markets, or does it also have values?
And of course, the higher the prices, the larger the number of people to whom whichever commodity we're speaking of is simply inaccessible. At some point practical effect isn't distinguishable from hoarding/shortage and it's not obvious that discriminating by price is ethically superior.
Whether shortages necessarily follow that depends heavily on whether there is any other motivating force in play along with institutions prepared to respond to it. In other words -- does a given society only have markets, or does it also have values?
And of course, the higher the prices, the larger the number of people to whom whichever commodity we're speaking of is simply inaccessible. At some point practical effect isn't distinguishable from hoarding/shortage and it's not obvious that discriminating by price is ethically superior.