• aesthelete@lemmy.world
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    10 months ago

    This is such a weird thing to research because a government (or governments) can directly or almost directly control what is profitable in a society based upon what is needed.

    • orrk@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      not really, while the government can do stuff like incentivize this only shifts the cost somewhere else

      • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Check out the farm bill, or ethanol in gasoline, or various other things. They also can disincentivize things, outright ban things, and add untold cost to competing stuff in order to make yours more profitable than theirs.

        The research done here had to be within the existing regulatory environment, which is not a fixed constraint at all but rather a product of government and industry actors.

        And all of that is just talking about more indirect controls commonly applied in neoliberal leaning countries, some countries directly control how much things cost and how much overhead there is.

      • Fogle@lemmy.ca
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        10 months ago

        Government can just take over and control whatever it wants. With no business allowed to operate the cost and therefore profit don’t matter