Rick wrote: As for the actual policy of government controlling what companies can charge for goods and services, can you show any examples of countries that have tried that and how did it work out?
IN MY OWN WORDS
(wow, you rally have a woody for that, don't you. are you excited now?)
PUBLIC UTILITY COMPANIES
, like Xcel and CORE.
That seems to work out pretty well protecting the consumer from price gouging, etc.
That is a great example of a command Soviet style economy. Xcel gets a license to operate as a public utility from Polis and Colorado. It's customers want cheap electricity and gas. The Democrats want Zero pollution. So they tell Xcel to raise the rates, so Xcel has to replace cheap coal and natural gas plants with expensive and unreliable wind turbines. So now Colorado consumers have to pay much more for every month. Many households are paying record amounts this year.
Personally I don't mind getting rid of the coal plants. Dirty energy but natural gas is very clean and cheaper than wind.
California? Highest energy prices around because they want to be green.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Hey, Rick asked for examples of success stories for where government regulated prices for goods and services. I gave an example, and a pretty successful example at that.
If government didn't regulate public utilities, then we'd really be screwed. (Think about Martin Shkreli and the price of drugs.)
Team Harris is floating a trial balloon of offering $25,000 to new home buyers. Personally I think that would just increase the prices of housing and definitely increase the federal deficit.
Might work better to clamp down on employers hiring illegal immigrants. With no work, many would self deport opening up more housing for Americans and would also lower house prices.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
FredHayek wrote: Team Harris is floating a trial balloon of offering $25,000 to new home buyers. Personally I think that would just increase the prices of housing and definitely increase the federal deficit.
Might work better to clamp down on employers hiring illegal immigrants. With no work, many would self deport opening up more housing for Americans and would also lower house prices.
Are you talking about legal or illegal immigrants as construction workers? I think you and Rick confuse the two, (perhaps deliberately.)
How would fewer migrant construction workers make housing more affordable?
koobookie wrote:
How would fewer migrant construction workers make housing more affordable?
Sure, cheap labor always helps lower costs, it also makes it so wages for AMERICAN CITIZENS go down or stay stagnant. Remember the days, not so long ago, that Democrats criticized Republicans for this very thing? You also need to remember hat these illegal “migrants” need homes to live in as well. 1 in every 5 hotels in NYC is populated by illegals and paid for by American Citizens.
koobookie wrote: Hey, Rick asked for examples of success stories for where government regulated prices for goods and services. I gave an example, and a pretty successful example at that.
If government didn't regulate public utilities, then we'd really be screwed. (Think about Martin Shkreli and the price of drugs.)
Do you think monopolies should be treated differently than businesses that have lots of competitors?
Ok, so I think we can agree that monopolies must be regulated when it comes to what they charge consumers. So what businesses could have their prices regulated (arbitrarily decided by morons in government) without either causing shortages or making the problem worse?
Price controls are part of communism, along with imprisonment and or murdering political opponents, working with media to spread propaganda and censor the opposing party and attempting to create a society where everyone is “equal”. Just look at and listen to the Democrat party… it’s easy to see if you want to see.
None of that fits in with a democracy and capitalism (which is another thing communists want to remove or limit).
