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A comment on Bad government policy is fueling the infant formula shortage. Parent comment

Re:Bad government policy is fueling the infant formula shortage by specialist on Sunday May 15, 2022 @01:34PM (#31389240)
Winner takes all outcomes are inevitable without regulation to preserve competition.

Orthogonal to administrative burden, regulatory capture, politics (dairy lobby, protectionism, whatever). Which are all also base states which must be actively thwarted.

The world is more complicated than Chicago School of Economics' Kiplingesque just so stories.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Bad government policy is fueling the infant formula shortage by MichaelZuo on Monday May 16, 2022 @09:42AM (#31397035)
Why do you believe winner takes all outcomes are inevitable without regulation?

Anyways, if you can devise a way to regulate millions of people spread across thousands of organizations with even 10% less 'administrative burden, regulatory capture, politics' you will certainly become the most influential person of all the time, assuming you keep on delivering year after year.

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Re:Bad government policy is fueling the infant formula shortage by specialist on Monday May 16, 2022 @06:34PM (#31403923)
Here's a fare primer:

https://fs.blog/mental-model-winner-take-all/

tldr: power laws, prefential attachment, compound interest.

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Re:Bad government policy is fueling the infant formula shortage by MichaelZuo on Tuesday May 17, 2022 @05:54PM (#31416744)
That explains the likelihood of a winner-takes-most situation developing. But that doesn't equate to a winner-takes-all situation.

I can easily see the 3 largest companies in a given sector taking 90% marketshare, or more. But to imagine 1 company taking 90% marketshare? I haven't seen a credible argument for why that would generally develop outside of some specific niche.

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