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 RobertsEvidence 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”
Created: 6/17/2026, 10:31:45 AM
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