CDR: Re: A famine averted...

Jim Choate ravage at ssz.com
Fri Oct 13 19:12:05 PDT 2000


On Thu, 5 Oct 2000, Marcel Popescu wrote:

> X-Loop: openpgp.net
> From: "Jim Choate" <ravage at EINSTEIN.ssz.com>
> 
> > I also thought of an example where a famine was averted due to government
> > intervention.
> >
> > The current hurricane in Belize. Had the government not stepped in and
> > 'price fixed' the stores would have been depleted and cached by the few a
> > week ago.
> >
> > Why in major disasters do prices go up, when it is clear this is contrary
> > to the best interest of the market? That without price fixing the majority
> > of people will be left without. Why is this hands-off philosophy not held
> > accountable for its failings? I must assume that the resultant famine due
> > to price inflation by the individual resource owners is still a result of
> > that government interference. ;)
> 
> Jim, are you really THIS dumb? Nobody can be this dumb and live long.
> 
> There's no person called "market", therefore it has no "interest".

No stupid, there are lot's of persons called the 'market'. There is no
'market' without those individuals. When the market goes out of
equilibrium then free market mechanisms are not enough to correct.

It is not in the interest of the market to have a percentage of the market
die due to resource limitations. If you don't get this then I'm not the
dumb one here.

Oh, on your comment about database usage and the 'ownership of 39'. You
mis-represent the situation.

It isn't the number that is of interest and debate, it's the 'Marcel is
...' part. In effect you are taking a number (i.e. your 39) and applying a
context to it based on the activity of one or more individuals. They in
effect 'author context' that gives the '39' a meaning greater than it's
cardinality/ordinality.

The reality is that anytime any agent accesses data in a database that has
context provided by my activity then they are accessing a work of my
creation. How come I don't get, for example, a dollar each time my context
is accessed? It's effectively theft.

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