A 'pile up free food in a warehouse' welfare scheme (like the Carrboro 'really really free market') is appealing for its minimal administrative cost and self-targeting, but fails the Hayekian knowledge problem: without prices to signal what people actually want, the system would supply goods (e.g., Cheerios) that recipients don't want, whereas markets steer information via prices.

causalpending

Speaker

Russ Roberts

Evidence Quote

the marketplace steers information the prices send signals etc etc and yet a lot of people I think would assume that the free food would be the right way to help poor people

Source

Mike Munger on Love, Money, Profits, and Non-profits 04/19/2010EconTalk
Created: 6/17/2026, 10:31:45 AM

My Notes

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