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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 12th, 2023

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  • Are you British? Generally supermarkets in the UK are usually quite community oriented. They often have collection boxes where you can buy an extra item of something you were going to get anyway and they give it to charity, and host other local charity initiatives sometimes. They even have a signboard in my supermarket with local community news and stuff. I believe most food stores give away surplus expiring food to homeless shelters (it says Tesco already does in the article). Giving it away in store is new and welcome but not without precedent. Some stores have a free fruit section for kids already for example.





  • There is no problem… in theory. You can show mathematically that profit maximisation and utility maximisation can distribute goods effectively. In theory, on paper, where everyone follows the rules and so on. That’s true with any system really.

    Often, when you solve these models in economics, you implicitly make the assumption of ‘benevolent dictator’. You need someone outside the system that has nothing to gain by interfering in the system, that can move stuff around at will, that regulates every single agent/firm to behave in ways only permitted by the system etc.

    The problem is humans are human. None of these things work if someone decides to not play by the rules. People can blame the system sure, but if the system isn’t even being employed properly in the first place, I think it’s the wrong argument to be having. It’s a bit like ignoring or modifying half the rules of a board game and then saying the game is broken because it leads to weird outcomes.