I've been thinking about this a lot lately - the "free market" is not actually driven by free consumptive choices, the much more essential free market mechanism is the competitive marketplace of companies trying to attract investors.
There's a few key things here.
One is that no consumer goes and researches every purchase they make to be more efficient. No one is going "oh safeway generic pasta noodles are cheaper, but aldi has the cheaper pasta sauces, so I'll make two stops to get the most value" people get the stuff they want, and are largely driven by subjective value, like advertising, branding, and don't have the time or energy to do extensive research.
Companies don't grow like players in stardew valley or farmville. You don't start with a patch of soil, grow 6 potatoes, sell them to buy another lot, grow 10 potatoes, and continue to expand based on revenue. You go to an investor with a pitch, and get millions or billions in Saudi Oil money to start a company that's like Uber but for your dishwashing machine.
Investors are going to do a lot of research into what they fund, and that research is primarily going to be "what is the risk of my investment, and what is my possible return?" They aren't going to fund stuff that doesn't have a good return, and that return needs to be competitive across basically any investment industry they could put their money in.
SO - the primary competitive market, in the free market, is the one to attract investors. A company trying to grow off of revenue will never be able to compete against one that can access millions in capital before even opening a store. The only way you can attract investors is by offering a good return. Saying "we're gonna undercut our competitors by not returning profits" is never going to attract investors, because they're not donating to charity, they're trying to make money. The only way that can work is with the Walmart or Amazon model where you use cost undercutting and run negative long enough to fully drive your competition out of business and then monopolize the whole space, which again, will deliver more value to your shareholders.
TL;DR - the economy isn't two dudes growing potatoes trying to compete against each other, it's a bunch of silicon valley assholes trying to solicit Saudi Oil money to fund highly extractive rent-seeking activity.
I hate that I could see a ride share, but for 'using your washing machine to. Make some extra cash'
the app. Have the Uber drivers ferry laundry around . Ghoulish.
I've been thinking about this a lot lately - the "free market" is not actually driven by free consumptive choices, the much more essential free market mechanism is the competitive marketplace of companies trying to attract investors.
There's a few key things here.
One is that no consumer goes and researches every purchase they make to be more efficient. No one is going "oh safeway generic pasta noodles are cheaper, but aldi has the cheaper pasta sauces, so I'll make two stops to get the most value" people get the stuff they want, and are largely driven by subjective value, like advertising, branding, and don't have the time or energy to do extensive research.
Companies don't grow like players in stardew valley or farmville. You don't start with a patch of soil, grow 6 potatoes, sell them to buy another lot, grow 10 potatoes, and continue to expand based on revenue. You go to an investor with a pitch, and get millions or billions in Saudi Oil money to start a company that's like Uber but for your dishwashing machine.
Investors are going to do a lot of research into what they fund, and that research is primarily going to be "what is the risk of my investment, and what is my possible return?" They aren't going to fund stuff that doesn't have a good return, and that return needs to be competitive across basically any investment industry they could put their money in.
SO - the primary competitive market, in the free market, is the one to attract investors. A company trying to grow off of revenue will never be able to compete against one that can access millions in capital before even opening a store. The only way you can attract investors is by offering a good return. Saying "we're gonna undercut our competitors by not returning profits" is never going to attract investors, because they're not donating to charity, they're trying to make money. The only way that can work is with the Walmart or Amazon model where you use cost undercutting and run negative long enough to fully drive your competition out of business and then monopolize the whole space, which again, will deliver more value to your shareholders.
TL;DR - the economy isn't two dudes growing potatoes trying to compete against each other, it's a bunch of silicon valley assholes trying to solicit Saudi Oil money to fund highly extractive rent-seeking activity.
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I hate that I could see a ride share, but for 'using your washing machine to. Make some extra cash' the app. Have the Uber drivers ferry laundry around . Ghoulish.