Physically identical things are often sold for different prices, usually because of
accompanying conditions that are quite different.
If a camera store sells a particular make and model of camera for $300 and the discount
house sells it for $280, it may still pay to go to the camera store where another make and
model of camera is available for $250 that does what you want to do just as well or
better.
If the camera store’s larger selection and more knowledgeable sales staff enables you to
buy only what meets your own needs, there may be financial savings there, as well as
better advice on operating the camera, even if the discount house charges a lower price
for each particular camera that both stores carry.
The point here is not to claim that it is generally better or generally worse to buy cameras
at a camera store or at a discount house. Instead, the point is that what is being sold in the
two places is not the same, even when the cameras themselves are physically identical.
The stores are charging different prices because they are supplying different things that
have different costs to the seller, as well as to the buyer.
Whatever the merits or demerits of various political proposal, what must be kept in mind when evaluating them is that the good fortunes and misfortunes of different sectors of the economy may be closely related as cause and effect - and that preventing bad effects may prevent good effects. It was not accidental that Smith Corona was losing millions of dollars on its typewriters while Dell was making millions on its computers. It was not accidental that Safeway surged to the top of the grocery business while A&P fell from its peak to virtual oblivion. The efficient allocation of scarce resources, which have alternative uses, means that some must lose their ability to use those resources in order that others can gain the ability to use them Typewriters were no longer what the public wanted after they had the option to achieve the same end result and more with computers. Scarcity implies that resources must be taken from some places, in order to go to other places.
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