[bhupy]

> completely ignoring how they affect the poorest 50% of the population

You're absolutely right that there are some poor people that don't have the ability to shop around. The solution to this isn't to centrally plan resource allocation, it's to just give poor people money (UBI/NIT).

We do this already for food (food stamps). Food is also a life-or-death good, one starves and dies if they don't have access to food.

There's definitely an argument to be made to increase food stamps and also turn it into straight cash, but that's orthogonal.

[danaris]

And I completely agree. I'm 100% for a true UBI, but as long as that's not yet politically feasible, I'm also for other solutions we can more likely implement in the meantime (like Medicare For All).