News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on My deadly disease was just a 23andme bug. Parent comment

Re:My deadly disease was just a 23andme bug by PKop on Monday November 25, 2013 @08:18PM (#6798410) 

  > Demand for treatment of a life-threatening, painful, or debilitating disease does not depend on the price or the quality. It's not a free market at all because consumers have no choice but to buy at any price.
If this were true, wouldn't this be true: Demand for [food, shelter,..other necessity..,] does not depend on the price or the quality. Markets for this good can never be free because consumers have no choice but to buy [food, shelter, etc.] at any price.

Don't consumers always have a choice at least to the degree with which they have choices of whom to by from?

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My deadly disease was just a 23andme bug by superuser2 on Monday November 25, 2013 @08:31PM (#6798461)
Food and shelter are classic examples of necessary goods which the government provides through taxation to those who can't afford them.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My deadly disease was just a 23andme bug by PKop on Monday November 25, 2013 @08:46PM (#6798516)
Government subsidization would only put more upward pressure on prices though. And yet, food does not cost infinity dollars. I wonder why?
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My deadly disease was just a 23andme bug by mikeash on Monday November 25, 2013 @09:30PM (#6798705)
Inelastic demand doesn't imply infinite price as long as there's competition among suppliers.

Government subsidies on the demand side would put upward pressure on prices, but government subsidies on the supply side put downward pressure on prices, and there's a lot of supply-side subsidies.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My deadly disease was just a 23andme bug by mistercow on Monday November 25, 2013 @10:18PM (#6798896)
I tend to agree, but to be fair, some of this would be mitigated if the market were truly free. For example, the lack of competition issue would be largely resolved in the absence of patents that grant long monopolies to single companies.
[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:My deadly disease was just a 23andme bug by Houshalter on Tuesday November 26, 2013 @02:42AM (#6799745)
The government doesn't produce them or set the price, they merely buy them. It's still a free market.
[ Parent | on HN ]