2026-09-07 05:31 UTC
"If economists wished to study the horse, they wouldn’t go and look at horses. They'd sit in their studies and say to themselves, 'What would I do if I were a horse?'" -Ely Devons
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If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:
https://pluralistic.net/2026/09/07/hotels-california#the-eagles-were-optimists
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Replies (1)
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@pluralistic@mamot.fr 2026-09-07 05:32
Half a century ago, a group of lavishly financed economists from the University of Chicago (the "neoliberals") convinced governments all over the world to completely upend the way they treated monopolies. Up until then, the purpose of competition enforcement was to reduce corporate power, with the understanding that once a corporation became more powerful than the government, it would be impossible to force it to follow *any* rules: https://pluralistic.net/2022/02/20/we-should-not-endure-a-king/ 2/