And effective public policy seeks to make it happen, by making what doesn’t work, actually work (which is to say that creating competitive markets (or a reasonable facsimile) actually requires government intervention, something the free market fundies never seem to get).

Short point to your point: I don’t think so.

by perris

here’s the truth about prices and wages in most of the market;

1) the wages of our workforce have nothing to do with the price of that product

2) the cost of making a product has nothing to do with the cost to the consumer

the price of a product relies on what a consumer will pay, nothing else, if the product costs more then a consumer will pay that product become extinct

all other excesses go into the pocket of management at the highest levels, the excess does not go into the workers pocket not the consumer’s pocket

by Ian welsh

And yet, there have been time periods where that was not the case.

Why?

the times that isn’t the case is when the provider is selling a product that can barely survive in the market on it’s own, the price is then based on product cost

it also happens when there is so much competition a consumer when needs a product doesn’t have to buy that product from any one supplier and all suppliers are operating on an equal playing field where none of them have the ability to externalize their costs more then the other providers, then price is based on the cost of providing the product and a fair markup

but even in these situations, the price is still based on what a consumer will pay, hardly ever is the price based on what a product costs in the end…if there are an abundance of providers the company that can operate the most efficiently will prevail, BUT as soon as the other providers are out of business prices rise yet again, this time even higher then before…even though profit margins are higher

if big business who are externalizing their costs are in the retail segment, they produce a product that puts the other suppliers out of business

now let’s look at home depot as the perfect example and business model for this discussion;

there used to be a hardware store in every single neighborhood, and a lumber yard every few neighborhoods

price was based on the market, if a product didn’t sell, the price went down until the merchant stopped stocking the product and it would become special order, special order would pay a premium but the merchant wouldn’t need as big a mark up since there were no stocking costs to consider

when home depot began their marketing scheme, their product was the same quality but because they bought in such quantity they were able to sell at lower prices

this put the local vendors out of business and very few survive

once the of putting the locals out of business was accomplished, not only did home depot raise their prices back to the original list, the quality also started to decline since the suppliers were getting payed on bulk and couldn’t or didn’t need to have the same quality control

so, the lower cost allowed home depot to charge less, but only until they achieved their goal of eliminating competition

Hmmm…Bad times ahead anyone?

They get rid of half the staff and you get to deal with the aftermath.

I love this city and I love to share it with good people!

Excellante!

As for the ‘good people’ reference, Mrs. STTP qualifies, but, unfortunately I’m part of the package.

And a good sport.

Mrs. STTP and I were gonna come down to your neck of the woods for our 10th anniversary later this month, but when I looked for rooms the whole city was booked solid.

A little digging and I found out why; N.O.’s big bad music festival!

Whenever we reschedule, dinner’s on us.

As long as you can find us a place with great bread pudding!