3 Matching Annotations
  1. Mar 2023
    1. more research and development dollars focus, for example, onnew medications for the pets of the affuent than for all African trop-ical diseases. And monies spent on innovations in the packaging anddistribution of bottled water for rich-world consumers dwarfs researchand development investments in clean-water systems for the poor inAsia and Africa

      // - market driven solutions distort achieving a good life for all - rather, they prioritize meeting the desires of the rich rather than the needs of the poor - investment flows to where money is expected to be made, not necessarily for any form of justice

  2. Aug 2020
  3. Jul 2019
    1. might markets just not work?

      Same thing in publishing, too. Lots of people say journal costs are inflated & they can run one cheaper. They're right, but there are two considerations: a) in a market economy prices reflect more than just costs. They reflect the economic value, which includes things like brand value, prestige and also, as this & the other posts argue, an inflation due to productivity rising in adjacent market sectors. So the market failures seem to come from a) the difficulty knowing how much something should cost (having comparables and not having too much complexity to understand) and b) too high value ascribed to the status or prestige (which, if understood as a social consensus proxy that reduces the complexity of actually understanding the business & what it's value to the consumer should be, collapses b into a).