Force people to pay

[JMeganSnow]

Seems common for Randian thinking to deal with uncomfortable economic situations -- situations where regulation makes economic sense -- by concluding that people could just live in total isolation. Strange in light of economics being all about exchange.

This is hugely inaccurate. The point is not that it's desirable to live in total isolation. The point is that no company under laissez-faire capitalism, even one with no direct competitor, has the power to "force" you to deal with them. If the power rates that were offered were truly too high--i.e. you valued what else you could do with that money far more than having electric power--then you can live without the power and spend your money on what you consider to be more valuable.

If, however, you actually consider the electric power to be more valuable than the money, then where does this whining that the rates are "too high" come from? Too high compared to what? Are they higher than what you might prefer? Well of course--because what you'd *prefer* would be to get everything for free.

People very often get this weird idea that there's a "correct" price for things. There is not. There is only what people are willing to pay because, in their judgment, the purchase is worth the price. This pertains whether there is one company selling the product or one thousand.

Competition in itself doesn't mean that prices will be lower, instead, it drives a process that tends to lower prices over time because it encourages improvements in efficiency, which lowers costs and allows for prices to go down. It even drives lower prices in areas without direct competition because when the unit price of something decreases, you sell more of it. Companies drive to bring products to the mass market at a much lower price than their initial offering because they actually make MORE money that way.

That doesn't mean the market is some kind of perfect Platonic system, far from it. It is a huge, messy complexity that is always changing and rearranging. The way to deal with it is to be an active participant. To weigh your purchases carefully and, yes, be willing to live without some things if you decide the price is too high. Nobody owes it to you to tell you what the price "ought" to be. Do you tell potential employers the cheapest conceivable rate they could get your labor for? No, you charge all they're willing to bear. Why is this fine for labor prices but not fine for other prices?