Re: Venezuela suffering through meat and sugar shortages
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Maybe eventually the black market will become the de facto market for all these goods and the whole scheme will collapse?
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Even if the black market is chugging along merrily, the large cost of risk of being imprisoned or killed for participating still prevents it from operating as a surrogate for a real free market.
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The increased risks inherent in black markets drive up prices. A similar principle is at work as in the illegal drug markets.
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Yeah, but that risk/cost is added to the equation through violent government means, so it's an imposition on the "free" market the same way that the government price controls are.
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