this post was submitted on 23 Aug 2023
692 points (91.9% liked)
Memes
45193 readers
2328 users here now
Rules:
- Be civil and nice.
- Try not to excessively repost, as a rule of thumb, wait at least 2 months to do it if you have to.
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
If one company decided that the average bread should cost 50 bucks then I'm going to buy someone else's bread and that company loses a lot of money.
If every company decided that the average bread should cost 50 bucks, that's an extraordinary opportunity for a new competitor to come in with reasonable prices.
One valid use of government power is punishing people who murder, and I'm not exactly sure what power cartels have outside of that.
I googled it and the Wikipedia page said they're inherently unstable, but I don't know how reliable that is.
In any case, I don't see how my second example isn't a cartel itself. All the bread companies are colluding to set the price of bread artificially high. The problem is there isn't much to stop new competitors (or to stop members defecting).