Quote:
Originally Posted by Thematic-Device
Cities could not exist under such a circumstance.
You realize that the most efficient pricing is when supply equals demand correct?
$1 isn't where supply equals demand but because a person needs water to live they'll be forced to pay it. When you hold the only means of the survival of the citizens of a city, it should be charged as if there was a competitive market, as a result of being allowed by the people to hold such a position.
Tenure doesn't mean the guy isn't a hack. Many times hacks congregate together, surrounding themselves with more hacks so they can claim to be "economists" without having to be challenged on it.
Economics, while is may be a dismal science, is still a science. With no testing you don't have science you have theology. Which is useless for public policy.
Real economists can and do predict the future fairly accurately, and when they fail they reanalyze and fix there theory. the Mises Institute and the Austrian School of Economics simply repeat the same mantra regardless of the results.
Any water firm is a natural monopoly in the long run. It's simply not profitable to compete.
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Sorry, I forgot something in my last post.
Austrians are not considered hacks by most economists. The founder of the school, Menger, is one of three people who were the founders of the marginal revolution. The other two are Walrus and Jevons, all three of these men are respected by most economists. Further, the fact that many Austrians might congregate at one school (and, as I said, there are Austrians around the world) does not mean that they are 'hacks.' The Chicago School congregates at the University of Chicago, are they hacks?