<story><title>How to Charge $546 for Six Liters of Saltwater</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/health/exploring-salines-secret-costs.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jes</author><text>How do you explain other free markets that obviously deliver quality products at low prices? I don&amp;#x27;t feel gouged when I buy a television, a cell phone or lumber at Home Depot.</text></item><item><author>nikatwork</author><text>Many in this thread are claiming that price fixing wouldn&amp;#x27;t occur in a &amp;quot;truly free&amp;quot; market. This is misty-eyed naivety.&lt;p&gt;In a completely deregulated free market, it is even more in the hospitals&amp;#x27; interest to form a price-fixing cartel. Any new player in the market trying to set reasonable market prices could be excluded through market pressure tactics (eg, tell distributors don&amp;#x27;t sell to them or our cartel will no longer use you).&lt;p&gt;It seems to me that the parlous state of the US healthcare system is in fact a perfect demonstration of the dangers of a completely free market, and claims that &amp;quot;oh no it&amp;#x27;s not actually free enough&amp;quot; are merely handwaving.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>abalone</author><text>&lt;i&gt;&amp;gt; I don&amp;#x27;t feel gouged when I buy a television, a cell phone or lumber at Home Depot.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;You might if you were carted into a Home Depot unconscious on a gurney, handed a non-returnable light bulb and stuck with a bill for $6,844.</text></comment>
<story><title>How to Charge $546 for Six Liters of Saltwater</title><url>http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/27/health/exploring-salines-secret-costs.html?pagewanted=all&amp;_r=0</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jes</author><text>How do you explain other free markets that obviously deliver quality products at low prices? I don&amp;#x27;t feel gouged when I buy a television, a cell phone or lumber at Home Depot.</text></item><item><author>nikatwork</author><text>Many in this thread are claiming that price fixing wouldn&amp;#x27;t occur in a &amp;quot;truly free&amp;quot; market. This is misty-eyed naivety.&lt;p&gt;In a completely deregulated free market, it is even more in the hospitals&amp;#x27; interest to form a price-fixing cartel. Any new player in the market trying to set reasonable market prices could be excluded through market pressure tactics (eg, tell distributors don&amp;#x27;t sell to them or our cartel will no longer use you).&lt;p&gt;It seems to me that the parlous state of the US healthcare system is in fact a perfect demonstration of the dangers of a completely free market, and claims that &amp;quot;oh no it&amp;#x27;s not actually free enough&amp;quot; are merely handwaving.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nikatwork</author><text>Free markets are a problem when there is a resource that can be monopolized (doctors &amp;#x2F; medical supplies) or when corporate goals are at direct odds to community interest (a deregulated BP despoiling the Gulf of Mexico because safety measures are expensive and fuck you.)&lt;p&gt;Home Depot would happily gouge you if they could form a cartel and gain enough control of the supply chain.</text></comment>