Thursday, December 24, 2015

How markets work

How markets work. Shkreli was a piker. $900 million a year for doing nothing, now that's scamming.

And here's RtO's Xmas gift to you: you get a Ph.D. in market economics if you can correctly answer this question:

It is suggested that Uber, the ride sharing business, will be valued by the market at $20,000,000,000 when it goes public. For a doctorate in market economics, tell the examiners how much the drivers -- who provide the labor and the investment capital -- will get.

If you said $0.00 you are now a doctor of market economics.

For a cum laude sash, answer this additional question: How much will Uber contribute  to buliding and maintaining the public roads that Uber drivers use?

If you said $0.00, you graduate cum laude.


9 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Free markets fail. But I've already told you that.

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  3. And it becomes no more correct no matter how relentlessly, and bizarrely, you repeat it.

    Just how, precisely, has the free market failed here?

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  4. (Oh, and you clearly have no idea how roads are funded.)

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  5. It's all about the allocation of capital, isn't it? Is there any other justification? But what purpose dos the transfer of $20,000,000,000 to the managers of Uber achieve?

    I kinda wish it would go public, because that will create a big opportunity for the bears. Someday the Uber drivers will figure out that they don't make any money. Then we'll see where the stock price goes.

    (Same for Facebook.)

    Please enlighten me about how money will flow from Uber to road-building accounts.

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  6. [harry:] Please enlighten me about how money will flow from Uber to road-building accounts.

    How about you enlighten yourself first about how road building and maintenance is funded.

    Then re-ask that question.

    Someday the Uber drivers will figure out that they don't make any money.

    There is your problem right there. You make a ridiculous assertion, then extrapolate.

    Taxi medallions are a huge deadweight overhead. There is a perfect example of a "regulated" market that leads to shortages, crappy cabs, and lousy service.

    But what purpose does the transfer of $20,000,000,000 to the managers of Uber achieve?

    The moment a progressive uses the word "purpose" in this context, you know you are dealing with smug hubris. I know, I repeat myself.

    The free market is a perfect example of self-organized complexity. Just like evolution.

    There are a great many things evolution has concocted, about which we can only barely surmise, if that, what the "purpose" might be.

    Yet there they are, nonetheless. Even if progressives can't figure it out.

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  7. But -- at least according to Guy -- free markets do have a purpose, so the question is apropos.

    Taxi medallions are not that common. Thy don't exist in my county, where Uber gouging has created a lot of rancor.

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  8. Let's take it one thing at a time.

    [Harry:] Please enlighten me about how money will flow from Uber to road-building accounts.

    [Hey Skipper:] How about you enlighten yourself first about how road building and maintenance is funded.

    Then re-ask that question
    .

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