The outrageous rip offs of capitalist free markets

Just such appalling behaviour, how could anyone possibly support this? Supermarkets are ripping off the poor consumer by, well, by cutting prices to said consumers:

UK supermarkets accused of ‘bombarding’ shoppers with cheap meat

Entirely disgusting, we hope we can all agree.

Britain’s biggest supermarkets stand accused of “bombarding” shoppers with offers of cheap meat, despite pledging to promote more meat-free diets to improve health and tackle global heating.

They are using money-saving promotions, such as two for the price of one, as a way of “pushing” meat, at odds with moves in the UK and globally for consumers to eat less of it, research found.

Consumers gain more of what they desire and this is - as the tone here makes clear - just appalling, isn’t it?

At which point to make that distinction between what people ought to want - even what they might say they want - and what they do want. Expressed and revealed preferences in the jargon. The best guide to which is to follow the money.

The supermarkets offer deals on meat because this at least appears to them to be profit maximising. That means that consumers must desire cheap meat - otherwise the offer would not be profit maximising. From which we can divine that consumers want cheap meat, whatever is said about health and or global heating.

As the aim of our having an economy - a civilisation even - is that more people gain more of what they desire this seems to be a good idea.

The only people who seem to be unhappy about this are those who think that consumers shouldn’t desire nor have more, cheap, or possibly even any, meat. But it is one of those very basic axioms that the people who get to define what they want is the people themselves, not others on their behalf. For those who would and do say that you cannot have what you desire because we say so are authoritarians and as such they can go boil their heads.

Supermarkets offering cheap meat? It’s the very proof perfect we require that capitalist free markets make us all richer. Because we end up with more of what we desire, not less of what some prodnose thinks we shouldn;t be allowed to have.