Re: Three Body Problem

On 20 Aug 2024 15:05:59 GMT, Chris Buckley <alan@sabir.com> wrote:

On 2024-08-19, Paul S Person <psperson@old.netcom.invalid> wrote:

<snip-a-bit>

The claim was that she proposed "freezing food prices and making
grocery stores report any changes in their prices".
>
Your quote simply doesn't back that up in any way.
>
But keep on trying. Who can say what Kamala may have said, say, 15
years ago in a private conversation now being outed by someone from
memory with no backup at all. Or some source of similar likely
validity.

>
Yes, freezing prices is a slight exageration of putting price controls
on, but only slight.  The mechanisms for enforcing them are the same: how
do you envision them as different? 

It is a PTTP, pure and simple.

I don't "envision" either as likely any time soon.

Price /controls/ imply rationing. As during WWII. You control the
prices because otherwise scarcity will cause them to rise.

Price /gouging/ is handled by putting people in prison. It is a crime.
Or should be. The problem, of course, is telling when it is happening
-- and who is doing it.

This is actually an /excellent/ first policy -- going directly at the
malefactors.

>
What malefactors???

That's my point: the people actually doing the price gouging should be
identified before solutions are proposed.

However, I would suggest she have someone actually
/study/ the situation to see if the problem she is trying to solve
actually exists -- that is, that the higher grocery prices actually
/are/ price-gouging and not legitimate economic behavior.
>
There is no point in solving a problem that does not exist.

>
I agree with all of this. I would have no objection (other than a
mild waste of time and money) if she had proposed an urgent study of grocery
prices and whether "price gouging" is happening. But she didn't.
>
She said that the problem exists and that it is very urgent for the
federal government to have rules and regulations right now to stop them.
That it is so clear cut that she will have rules in place within 100 days.

Only if the laws exist already. Some have indicated that new laws
might be needed. That could take a while to sort out. Particularly if
the Republicans control either or both Houses of Congress.

Why do *you* believe that it is an excellent policy to have the
federal government involved in regulating grocery prices?

I said it was an excellent /first/ policy. I did not say it was
excellent as such. It is a good place to start. She can make some fine
declarations from the Oval Office on the topic. Whether it actually
goes anywhere who can say? This is politics, after all. Did the Wall
get build with Mexico paying? Don't think so.

Note: I buy a lot of store brands, and some of those, at least, have
dropped back down, at least a bit. Those concerned about grocery store
reporting should keep two things in mind:
1) If the stores always mark up the items they sell by the same
amount, then /they/ aren't gouging.
2) If restricted to larger stores, or chains, then the report would
probably be done by a computer anyway. We need not picture 100 new
employees just to keep track of prices.

>
It's done by a computer, it's simple? Tell that the federal government -
how many multi-billion dollar computer programs have they abandoned over
the years?

Do you really believe that a major corporation is somehow unable to
tell exactly where every penny received from something it sold goes
to? Cost of item, cost of overhead, cost of wages, profit, and any
others? Not the CEO, perhaps, but some weenie three or four levels
down in Accounting surely can.

If they can't, then /they can't tell which lines/products make the
most money for them/ and how can they make intelligent business
decisions if they literally don't know what they are doing?

My supermarket has very low prices on basics ($2.49/gallon for milk),
but has a large selection of luxury and prepared items with a much
higher markup (I'm sure some of the sushi items are 200% or more).  Are you
saying the federal government should have a say in this strategy?
>
Their fruit prices normally vary by as much as a factor of 3 or more
throughout the year - it matters if they are getting them from local
orchards or Brazil. Are you saying the markup has to be the same
throughout the year?

No. But it has to not triple when a pandemic hits unless there is a
good economic reason for it. And "raking it in while I have the chance
and devil take the hindmost" is not a good economic reason.

Which is why the effort, confined to the major corporations, should
also start with historical research so an idea can be formed of what
is normal and what is not.

Just what is this magical computer keeping track of at the federal level?

What magical computer? I don't think they exist ... in this reality.

Maybe in PTTP-land. In fact, I would think Russia would be a good
place to look for such a machine. Or China.
--
"Here lies the Tuscan poet Aretino,
Who evil spoke of everyone but God,
Giving as his excuse, 'I never knew him.'"