After yesterday\u2019s post, there was some good discussion in a couple of different fora. Some of the more interesting observations came off of the afterthoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I said: To which my friend Scott said: Another friend, Lyell, jumped in and gave exactly the right answer: I\u2019ll expand on that: It takes a long time and a lot of work to get a farm running. It takes a long time to produce a single crop, once you have that farm in place. It doesn\u2019t take all that long to ship the food around, but it\u2019s important to know whether you\u2019re planning to eat it fresh or preserved in some way. By contrast with those long-view items you\u2019ve the inescapable fact that every person on earth has to eat, nearly every day. Civilization is a thin veneer, perhaps three meals thick, on top of chaos. It only takes a day or two of being unable to feed a family before even the most law abiding of citizens will go out and start doing very non-law-abiding things. We all have a strong, shared social interest in (to keep it in economic terms) low volatility in the food supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One can argue about the merits of various schemes accomplish that stability \u2013 but I\u2019ll go out on a limb and say that if you\u2019re opposed<\/strong> to a stable food supply \u2013 then you and I don\u2019t have much to talk about, politics-wise.<\/p>\n\n\n\nI think that there are some things that are too important to society to have them serve as engines of profit. I include the basics: housing, medical care, basic food provision for the masses, basic education, and so on. Note that this doesn\u2019t mean \u201clet\u2019s make them into pure social programs.\u201d I\u2019m a big believer in market forces. It\u2019s just that if housing is important enough to regulate \u2013 then don\u2019t regulate it for the benefit \/ profit of the wealthy \u2026 regulate it for the the benefit of the majority.<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\nI don't understand the tendency to think that market forces (motive for profit) shouldn't be employed for \"the basics\" as you say -- a shortage of food makes the price go up and a farmer than can produce more of it and does so in order to make a profit.<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\nIf you had farmers leaving the industry after every little food shortage (market forces, ya'll!), you'd have far, far fewer products on the shelves and much more volatility in the ability to feed the entire population.<\/code><\/p>\n\n\n\n