Food is largely a free market in the US. A billionaire could buy a billion dollars worth of beef tomorrow. But they don't, because why would they?
And in fact, markets have done a better job of feeding people than any centralized planning system has. I don't see why masks would be any different.
There is no single system that does better universally, but there are plenty of narrow fixes that do fine. As an example, scarce donor organs are not allocated based on ability to pay, but in other ways: https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/learn/about-transplantation...
That only is true if we ignore the organ black markets that many millionaires/billionaires have access to.
Sure, I was not saying markets are perfect, I asked what system with no markets is better?
> There is no single system that does better universally, but there are plenty of narrow fixes that do fine.
Agreed.
> As an example, scarce donor organs are not allocated based on ability to pay, but in other ways: https://optn.transplant.hrsa.gov/learn/about-transplantation....
And if you investigate it I'm sure you'll also find plenty of examples of failures in organ allocation.
No country in which there are corn subsidies is there a "free market."