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by sfnhltb 6078 days ago
Of course the slight problem is that the underlying axioms of capitalism/free marketism is that the only possible consumer is God, as you need to have perfect information about the entire universe so that you can make the correct transactions. When your economic system is based on the idea that omniscience is required of everyone taking part, it is impossible to make statements about how fool proof the system is.
1 comments

I don't think this is an axiom of capitalism.

It might be an axiom of some models of capitalism. It would be very hard for an analyst to reason about a transaction if you were required to take imperfect information into account.

Interestingly, in a different model you might factor in the cost of obtaining information about the transaction; and still determine that it was more efficient for you to pay £75 than find the free Firefox.

You would still be rational. Just very rich, or perhaps extremely lazy. But you are not required to be omniscient in that model, only able to estimate the cost of obtaining the information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfect_information