As martin pointed out, thats inflation and isn't relative to other people - only relative to purchasing power. Poor people will always exist - that's a fact. How is it relevent?

It doesn't matter if the world follows suit, but it would be better if they did. The more & more the world moves towards open markets the better off everyone is - it's been the main reason that wealth has grown as much as it has.

What makes you think the world has to follow suit?

Interesting...the only thing this tread proves to me is that Martin is not an Atheist. He's a full blown worshiper of the Free Market God, with all of it's attendant mythologies and magical invisible hands.

you arent listening. collusion will not happen if the market is free, because the world is a big place and people want to make profits more than they want to collude with each other.

imagine there are lots and lots of other people who sell widgets. and there are so many, thet the competition keeps the prices low. but some peeps want us widget-sellers to collude and double our prices. it sounds like a good idea, because we have the widgets and people have to come to us. but once the colluders start to raise the prices, i realize that i can sell my widgets for the same price i used to sell them for, and i will be the only one selling them at those prices. my profits will skyrocket if i refuse to join the colluders, because i have no more competition at the market price. so i can make enormous profits and all i have to do is refuse to collude.

can you understand why collusion will not happen in a free market?

of course people like to scare each other with the idea that collusion happens, but of course they do that because they themselves are colluding with the government to screw the taxpayer and force him to pay for their products without even buying them.

if you understand what i just told you, that would be a start.

all praise to the invisible hand, the rational man's jesus.

the job of the government in the economy is to prevent people from being defrauded and to settle contract disputes and such. it isnt to fix prices or give free money to people in certain industries. of course that sucks if you want free money, but too bad.

joe six pack who happens to work in the construction industry shouldnt have his money taken and given to joe six pack who works in the food industry because you are smarter than him and know how he should spend his money. people deserve to keep the money they earn. people need the money they earn and they dont need you taking it from them for your bloated government programs.

See there Parso, I told you so. In the world that exists only in martin's imagination, people also don't care about increasing market share, because they want everyone to have their share of the pie. Mergers don't take place either, bigger companies don't buy up smaller companies, and big companies who can afford it don't undercut the weaker competition's prices to force them out of business. Imagination is much more pleasant than reality.

While he's theoretically correct, you are also correct because no markets are perfectly efficient. However, farming happens to be one of the most efficient markets that exists (or atleast, it would be if it weren't for subsidization).

Regardless, collussion wouldn't happen simply because there are laws against it & although mergers and such would take place, it wouldn't affect the market all that much.

Are you serious?