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by chernevik
5169 days ago
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First, I'm very sorry for your loss. Second, there is no more predictable rule of human behavior than the conscious, rational pursuit of self-interest. Adam Smith was very clear on this, businesses will seek to form cartels at every opportunity. We can legislate against explicit collusion, but these laws are very tough to enforce. It's very possible that the executives in these companies are deviating from legal standard, but enforcement of laws governing intent is even harder. As a policy matter, better / stricter law is unlikely to solve the problem. The stronger solution is discouraging barriers to entry. Competitive entry of new players is the best discipline against cartel behavior. Commenters elsewhere in this sub-thread are arguing that one bad regulation isn't an argument against regulation generally. But the problem is distinguishing the bad regulations from the good. It's very likely that at some point there was some policy argument for these stupid rules, sufficiently plausible at the distance held from all but the most expert. The formulation of such arguments to justify known-bad policy is a constant component of our governance. It's possible that the intelligence of the rules depended on some other rule or aspect long since departed. That's the beauty of markets: The players' incentives lead them to constantly monitoring and adapting to conditions. And those incentives provide discipline that forces analysis from "sounds good enough to me" to more exacting standards. Congress here has suspended a large chunk of market operation, in a medical market where many other chunks have been suspended. It is not the least bit surprising that this has lead to grotesqueries. |
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