Re:Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong
by throwanem on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @11:01AM
(#22866819)
In an abstract philosophical vacuum, where manufacturers can instantaneously increase production of arbitrary goods to an arbitrary extent, such an argument makes sense.
In the real world, which recently has provided an ample sufficiency of evidence that manufacturers can do no such thing because the process depends on specialized machinery that takes considerable time to manufacture in its own right, such an argument can most kindly be described as struggling to achieve relevance.
Somewhat less kindly, one might note that such an argument equates to saying that, well, actually you can produce a baby in one month by getting nine women pregnant, as long as you pay all the women enough.
Re:Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong
by erik_seaberg on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @12:16PM
(#22867773)
Manufacturers could have bought a lot of extra machinery knowing it's hardly ever needed, but they didn't. Why? During a crisis it's illegal to raise prices enough to fully pay off all that machinery.
Re:Economists who defend disaster profiteers are wrong
by mrguyorama on Tuesday April 14, 2020 @11:05AM
(#22866862)
The price is not limited right now, and yet production is barely ramping
From my perspective, there should be some word for the delusion that equitable distribution of a smaller, price-fixed supply is better than prioritized distribution of a larger, price-gouging supply. The lack of masks that not allowing higher prices causes is going to kill people, and you want to restrict the supply available to everyone in order to not be unfair to the poor?