Corporations don’t willingly give up money. In circumstances like 1 and 3 they’ll more likely just say “thanks for making line go up more” lol. COVID imposed some supply issues that I would assume are mostly mitigated by now, but I haven’t seen costs decrease, only increase–so now we have record profits in many contexts. Subsidies can sometimes help, but it seems to me that the most effective subsidies (in terms of lowering cost) are those with significant, more powerful corporate players downstream (e.g., corn in the US) rather than those purchased by individual consumers who have comparatively little power.

I don’t know that 2 is necessarily quick, but competition can indeed lower prices if a competitor can actually survive against the behemoths in their respective markets. In those instances, corporations can try to shape regulation to squash the upstarts while leaving the big players alone.

I’m not sure that government really has the ability to lower prices in a way that isn’t somehow perverted by large corporate entities given the power they have.

National Crab Rangoon Day, February 13.

Is it a made up holiday? Yes. But all holidays are made up. This one gives me crab rangoon. Your move, Flag Day.

Journal of Astrological Big Data Ecology. Fantastic.

The big issue is that the individuals who lead these institutions are those who are successful with the status quo; perhaps some recognize the importance of changing it but I perceive that most would be unwilling to dismantle a system that worked well for them.