• Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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    3 days ago

    Prices go down due to competition. So the government can’t lower prices, unless it destroys demand so the existing levels of competition cause lower prices. The government can lower demand by raising taxes, or if the fed raises interest rates. Eventually leading to enough unemployment to lower demand.

    In short, if the government makes prices go down, people tend to burn down the government before that happens. So it’s not really something they can do. Increasing prices is a whole different thing, inflation pisses people off in smaller doses, and keeps them in jobs, so they’re too busy to grab pitch forks and torches.

        • theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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          3 days ago

          If an entire industry is bankrupt, it is no longer needed and has been supplanted by a better industry. And that usually ends in lower prices. Tractors are way, way cheaper than oxen.

          • Skyrmir@lemmy.world
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            3 days ago

            The industry goes bankrupt because it can’t compete with a government producer that doesn’t pay taxes, leading to a government program running without competition, paid for by deficit funding.

            • theonlytruescotsman@sh.itjust.works
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              3 days ago

              If you’re a currency issuer then your government programs don’t run on any funding. They are allocated a maximum amount of new currency.

              But modern monetary theory aside, government competitors only eliminate shitty competition, not entire industries, unless those industries are themselves useless like the insurance industry.