Capitalism is under attack by those on the Left that believe that it is evil and that it discriminates against "the oppressed". The major problem is that they try to wrap up both economics and their sense of morality into a bow. If it (or anything else, for that matter) isn’t exactly to their liking, it must be bad and must be legislated, regulated, or adjudicated to the point that it would be.
Yet, what would be better? Here’s something to say "there isn’t" (emphasis mine):
…I’ve often annoyed friends by repeating my view that “Prices are beautiful.” We have a tendency to view prices as deception, a trick played on consumers to scam us into paying more than we like. Prices are information. Like ants tracing pheremones, prices provide signals for the billions of buyers and sellers that we call “the market.” These prices guide our savings, our production and our consumption. Isn’t it marvelous how we can use a price to evaluate all 3 of those functions? Prices are like a universal language! (But far superior to Esperanto)
Our preferences conflict as multiple people want the same item. How do we resolve this? You could take it by force. You could plead your case before a judge. You could lobby a Senator for a favor. You could stand in line and submit a request to a bureaucrat. Or you could express your desire for the good directly to the person selling the item you desire. The seller can then compare the intensity of your desire to that of other interested buyers. We express the intensity of our desires (and our willingness to sell) with little tags of information called Prices!…
(H/T: Cafe Hayek)
Progressives BIGGEST problem with capitalism? They don’t trust the sellers in selling a decent product or service, and they believe that most people will make bad decisions – or worse, the WRONG decision (in their minds). It also allows us to make choices – and choice is one of the biggest measures of freedom. The price of something is compared against my sense of it’s worth to me – am I willing to pay that price to fill either a need or a want? Is it of sufficient utility to me (either in actual usage or perceived value) for me to part with part of my life (my labor) to obtain it?
Price – doesn’t solve everything but can solve a lot.
Operation Payback – my run for my School Board is not just because of the obstinence; we are paying almost $20,000 / student with barely above average results with respect to NECAP scores. To me, even in a marketplace that is essentially a government monopoly (with insufficient competitors in the local market to provide a viable number of consumer choice), that is a price too high.
Capitalism is a voluntary exchange – either a vendor brings a product to market or not. I, as a consumer, can purchase a product, or not (except in MA where RomneyCare forces me to buy a product, and ObamaCare will force us all to do so).
Like at Best Buy, last night. It is not often that a TV starts to sound like a washing machine…
spinning down an unbalanced load, or a car air conditioner starting to throw a bearing. Nor, with my malfunctioning nose (my sense of smell is very limited), does the aroma of burning plastic waft gently from my old Samsung DLP-on-the-pedestal. Yeah, died a horrible death! TMEW allows me much free rein in this blogging stuff (and often helps out). Thus, when she came to me and asked with that plea in her eyes "new one?" without saying a word, I said yes.
Well, long story short – replacement TV for the widescreen that died, picked out a smaller one for the bedroom one that was about to die, wall mounts, and the Geek Squad to install. Price? I asked the sales dude "Deal"? Er, not from him – the "TV Mgr".
Well, not everything is dependent on price, including my time. Again, this was for TMEW, so waiting 25 minutes for this "Mgr" to come over and give me a price was not worth it for me, but for her – yes. Until he decided that he was going to show me how much he was going to "save" me for "the best buy". Right off the bat, the big widescreen was on sale – price was already posted. Well, part of his saving me $850 overall was done by showing me the "normal" price of the set vs what was posted – a difference of several hundred dollars. I’m usually not one to use foul language, but the phrase "don’t p*** on my leg and call it rain" did cross my frontal lobes. And again for the second set. And contrasted that with Sears and a couple of other places to "prove" that he was saving me LOTS of money.
In effect, his price was a total of $30 off the two mounts – and that shameless attempt to try to do that stunt with wool. Yeah, I lit into him in front of other customers – loudly. Every single price on every product and service.
He, and Best Buy, paid the price for my aggravation of waiting too long (part of the time with another customer, not all of it) and then insulting me by thinking I was truly math challenged (like some of his cohorts, I would imagine – he was rather young). I dropped the second TV, dropped the two installs and the mounts. He thought he had a done deal – and found out his price was too high. He expected me to believe that Best Buy makes nothing on their TVs? Did he think that he had a monopoly?
Yeah, he sold the big TV – for you see, the price point for me with TMEW was far too big NOT to do that deal – it had nothing to do with him. She allows me much and asks for little in return – and after all, the price on her face when I put it together and hooked up the Hi Def cable box to it – how do you put a price on a beaming bride of 30 years (this June).
And when I hooked up the Blue Ray DVD to it and she played a Disney movie – priceless!
(who knows, there may be a voluntary transaction in this for me in the end that may put a smile on my face…)