Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
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Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
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Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
#2The provided examples don't hold a candle to the termite-gnawing power of the armies of government bureaucrats and lawyers that are the real source of the cost explosion.
Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
#3You forgot vets and dentists!
Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
#4The provided examples don't hold a candle to the termite-gnawing power of the armies of government bureaucrats and lawyers that are the real source of the cost explosion.
I hear this a lot whenever antitrust is brought up. Do you have concrete examples of how, say, the DMV or Kansas Board of Consumer Welfare costs society more that, say, UnitedHealth's price gouging, Microsoft's SaaS, or Google and Apple's backdoor deals with Apple or Amazon's practices?
Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
#5The provided examples don't hold a candle to the termite-gnawing power of the armies of government bureaucrats and lawyers that are the real source of the cost explosion.
Also, I forgot to ask specifically which army of government bureaucrats and lawyers? The ones who try to go after the private entities who profit from harming health and environment but outsource costs too greater society?
Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
#6I very much agree with the premise that economists unduly focus on a few metrics of dubious quality - labor force participation, personal consumption expenditures, market capitalization, wage growth, etc - and overfit them to construct a coherent narrative about the "strength" of the economy and what the experience of living in that economy must be like.
There's a story right now being peddled by all the talking heads that the economy is "great", but consumers keep reporting feeling terrible, so consumers must not understand something.
I think this goes the other way around. Our method for understanding the economy is flawed and is not properly capturing what all consumers know intuitively, things kind of suck, even when you have a job and even when you're still buying things.
We need to start thinking about what information needs to be captured and how it needs to be reported to start making better sense of what's broken and how to fix it.
Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
#7I very much agree with the premise that economists unduly focus on a few metrics of dubious quality - labor force participation, personal consumption expenditures, market capitalization, wage growth, etc - and overfit them to construct a coherent narrative about the "strength" of the economy and what the experience of living in that economy must be like. There's a story right now being peddled by all the talking head…
They're addicted to metrics instead of observation. Anything that isn't easily measured is considered to not exist, including how people feel about it.
Now that I think about it, that's literal selection pressure for psychopathy.
Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
#8You forgot vets and dentists!
Let's not even start on healthcare and PE...
Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
#9The provided examples don't hold a candle to the termite-gnawing power of the armies of government bureaucrats and lawyers that are the real source of the cost explosion.
I hear this a lot whenever antitrust is brought up. Do you have concrete examples of how, say, the DMV or Kansas Board of Consumer Welfare costs society more that, say, UnitedHealth's price gouging, Microsoft's SaaS, or Google and Apple's backdoor deals with Apple or Amazon's practices?
War is probably the largest line item for most people. Losing decades long wars is expensive. You have the social decay that comes with focusing abroad rather than at home. Homelessness, drug addiction (my friends probably were killed by heroin made from poppies that a marine was tasked with protecting, maybe some of yours too)
Running a close second (maybe first) is regulatory capture, things like patents and certificates of need. Requirements for patented safety features in cars, patents on medicine, copyright on characters your grandma grew up with.
Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us
#10The provided examples don't hold a candle to the termite-gnawing power of the armies of government bureaucrats and lawyers that are the real source of the cost explosion.
I hear this a lot whenever antitrust is brought up. Do you have concrete examples of how, say, the DMV or Kansas Board of Consumer Welfare costs society more that, say, UnitedHealth's price gouging, Microsoft's SaaS, or Google and Apple's backdoor deals with Apple or Amazon's practices?
Haha, DMV… I just moved to North Carolina, and the next available appointment at the DMV to change the address on my driver license is in September (it’s beginning of June as I am writing this).
When I moved the last time in a different state - the appointment to change my address on my driver license was same week and took about 15 mins, most of which I spent trying to get a decent picture.
So I “know” it doesn’t take very long to print a plastic card.