NancyLebovitz comments on Science Doesn't Trust Your Rationality - Less Wrong

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Comment author: NancyLebovitz 03 September 2011 09:59:15PM 1 point [-]

I'm assuming it wasn't a price floor-- that would make bread less affordable.

You agree that the effect of a high floor would be higher quality, but doubt such a law wold be enacted because of the unpopularity of raising food proces?

No, I'm not sure what the effect of a price floor would be on quality (it seems to me it could be positive, negative, or neutral), but I don't have to care because I don't think a price floor would be politically possible under the circumstances.

I'm not convinced it's possible to reliably change what people want.

Comment author: lessdazed 03 September 2011 10:28:21PM 0 points [-]

I don't have to care because I don't think a price floor would be politically possible under the circumstances.

If you think subsidies politically possible, and subsidies would lower food prices, wouldn't subsidies and a price floor be politically possible together? Then, if the floor raised quality more than subsidies lowered it, couldn't there be a net increase in quality?

Comment author: NancyLebovitz 04 September 2011 12:59:24PM 1 point [-]

The point of not having a price floor is that the political pressure is to keep bread affordable.

I've ordered the book about the history of French bread, though I don't have tremendous faith that there will be enough about politics and economics to answer the question of how a controlled market maintained high quality.

I'm fantasizing that there were panels of bakers doing blind tests of the flour, but really I'm guessing.

Meanwhile, something to contemplate from a fine essay about samovars:

Even if you choose to buy it, pour it immediately into some airtight, resealable package (e.g. a metallic box). The second important factor is the granularity. Finely grained, dust-like tea is a by-product of tea production. Selling it as tea is a consequence of the typical capitalist rush for efficiency that sacrifices quality on the altar of productivity. Don't buy dust swept off the floor. The other extreme is the rough tea possibly containing parts of the tea plant other than the leaves. This is due to the careless treatment characteristic of planned economies. Underpaid slaves or irresponsible workers who get paid no matter how badly they work are prone to such crimes

I believe competence happens when there's enough pressure for accomplishment, but not too much.

Comment author: lessdazed 04 September 2011 01:27:28PM *  0 points [-]

An analogy:

The point of having a minimum wage is to help low wage earners. Would it be politically difficult to lower the minimum wage by 15 cents? I assume so, and resistance would be motivated by direct concern for the poor.

Would it be politically difficult to simultaneously, in a single bill, lower the minimum wage by 15 cents, slightly raise all taxes, and provide a transfer of hundreds of dollars per month to every person in your country? Also yes, but for different reasons entirely, having nothing proximately to do with direct concern for the poor. Combining the measures would eliminate the previous political objections, like a strong wave swamping weak one.

In practice, some laws have establish fixed prices. A fixed price law is the same as a bill with two laws establishing a floor and a ceiling. Such laws have not been politically impossible in history, and a compromise bill needn't satisfy various constituencies by containing laws of parallel structure (i.e. limits to a price range).

I don't think one can say a measure (especially one strongly supported by a minority) would not be politically feasible alone and consequently conclude it would not be the outcome of a compromise political process.

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