By Carlos Boix
Prices in veterinary services for pets have skyrocketed in the UK since 2020, but the only solution interventionists can find is antitrust policy.
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134 sats \ 18 replies \ @SimpleStacker 11h
Ehhhhhh... Austrians aren't gonna be taken seriously if they won't use language in a way that other economists would understand. I don't think any economist would define monopoly pricing as "suppliers forcing people to buy at higher prices than they agreed upon".
I agree with the second part, though, that government acts to "fix" the situation are highly suspect.
I'm also surprised he didn't bring up occupational licensing requirements. A lot of times the market power that suppliers have is the result of government intervention... usually well lobbied for by the suppliers themselves...
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30 sats \ 17 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 11h
I agree that the phrasing you point out is really poor. I've never seen it before, though, so it's not the norm amongst Austrians to say it that way.
This isn't an author I'm familiar and it seems that English is a second language. Perhaps something got mixed up that should have been caught by an editor.
The standard Austrian case is that all true monopolies are a result of government intervention.
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42 sats \ 16 replies \ @SimpleStacker 11h
Sort of related, but I've also been reflecting lately at how busy all the local businesses in LA seem to be, despite population decline and business closures everywhere. I was trying to square it in my mind, and then I realized that it's because in a highly regulated, high cost environment, businesses can only survive if they have extremely high demand (hence, being congested). So it's a classic example of high costs chasing out a bunch of businesses, then the remaining ones only being able to survive by capturing the rest of the market and being congested and charging high prices.
The progressives who hate monopolies and price gouging so much are actually creating the conditions under which businesses can have market power and price gouge.
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30 sats \ 15 replies \ @Undisciplined OP 11h
I had never thought about it before, but the place I lived with the worst regulatory environment also had the busiest businesses but it also seemed like there were too few of them.
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42 sats \ 14 replies \ @SimpleStacker 9h
I'm quite sure of it. It makes total economic sense. I bet there's a literature on this out there... if not, there should be.
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0 sats \ 13 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 6h
So you don't want doctors to have to be registered to practice medicine?
Good luck with that heart surgery next week...
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0 sats \ 12 replies \ @SimpleStacker 5h
Idiotic straw man argument
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0 sats \ 11 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 5h
Can you explain that name calling shoot the messenger avoid the argument assertion?
You would be happy to undergo surgery from an unqualified surgeon?
How can an ordinary consumer reasonably assess the training level-skill set and capability of a surgeon or other professionals if they are not regulated by government?
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @Solomonsatoshi 5h
Libertarian economists are illiterate.
They have never read Adam Smith and cannot grasp very simple basic economic and human behaviour concepts -
‘People of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the publick, or in some contrivance to raise prices’.
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0 sats \ 0 replies \ @BlokchainB 9h
Hahahaha no way?!?
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