Economics in a Nutshell

Submitted by Bill St. Clair on Mon, 14 Aug 2006 11:13:37 GMT  <== Politics ==> 

eyeon at The Claire Files Forums - my title. Wonderful summary of economics in a discussion on Communism. [clairefiles]

Now, be sure to write this down, because it will be on the final: By pursuing increased profit in a free market, you make things better for everyone. A free market means anybody can sell, and anybody can buy, and that's it. You can't force anybody to buy, you can only offer to sell. You can't force anybody to sell, you can only offer to buy. If you freely offer a product for a given price, and somebody freely buys it at that price, congratulations! You've just made things better. You've just been "altruistic" and "helped society". It doesn't matter what I or that other guy over there think about the price; whether we think you ripped your buyer off, or that he got a really good deal from you; as far as you're concerned, you're better off, and as far as he's concerned, he's better off. The moment, however, that anybody on the planet besides the people involved in the transaction start declaring how it should happen, you've lost; people are getting worse off.

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