“From the point of view of physics, it is a miracle that 7 million New Yorkers are fed each day without any control mechanism other than sheer capitalism.”
~John Holland, scientist, Santa Fe Institute
“I am convinced that if the market system were the result of deliberate human design, and if the people guided by the price changes understood that their decisions have significance far beyond their immediate aims, this mechanism would have been acclaimed as one of the greatest triumphs of the human mind.”
~Friedrich Hayek, Nobel economist
Economists as social scientists??? “Without any control mechanism other than “sheer capitalism”"??? “deliberate human design”??? Anybody been in a wholesale produce distribution market? …study any history as to how it was set up? We have a wholesale market in LA that has been around for many, many decades and was specifically established to get California produce back East. I have a grandfather/immigrant from Italy who established himself here as a wholesale broker in produce in the 1920′s — even immigrants could see a major markdet for goods — it didn’t just happen.
You’re obviously missing the point, which is that the market is establishing these mechanisms for moving and selling food unmolested by government meddling.
It was replaced by a far more efficient free market mechanism based on capitalism. That’s why your grandfather’s dream never happened.
“From the point of view of physics, it is a miracle that 7 million New Yorkers are fed each day without any control mechanism other than sheer capitalism“…
Not if Nanny Bloomberg has his way…
Mark — if you are interested in economic/social stats in communities, here is a link to the county where I live (just north of Los Angeles)…
http://vccf.org/programs/civicalliance/SotR.shtml.
The economy is mixed between agriculture, industry, government. In industry we have Haas Automation (#1 in CNC equipment), Amgen, Baxter, and many smaller bio/med/tech companies, as well as a few in the info tech world. We have a big consumer market and we also do some exporting. The agriculture industry is more than just what is in the ground — we have a big seed company that exports world-wide (I think they are now owned by Monsanto.), many support industries for the ag industry — for labor and mgmt, beneficial insects, lab analysis, etc. And there has been a military presence here since WWII.
Regarding the Hayek quote, what about negative externalities?
what about them?
if you have an effective rights structure, you can price and trade an externality just like anyhting else.