Oddbean new post about login | logout In a free market you would have gotten increasingly healthier foods cheaper. What we're getting now is shittier food that's getting increasingly more expensive. Consumer is cornered and confused, and free and organic markets just can't compete in centrally rigged markets at the same scale.
Exactly. Markets don't just magically solve problems that we hope they would. Rather, they optimize whatever result is dictated by incentives. There is in fact a market that has fixed this for those who choose (and have the means) to participate. For the vast majority, however - who either don't know, don't care, or have no viable alternative - the dominating incentive is price; not health. And, better prices are overwhelming a result of government intervention in favor of shittier food.