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Comment by vineyardmike | Hacker News Reader

> the increase in prices was because there were too many buyers and too few cars, not because the owners of used cars suddenly because significantly more greedy overnight.

No it’s literally greed. You can choose to not raise the price of your used car when you sell it. “Market price” is a hallucination that you can ignore. You’re not forced to go along with it. As you said, sellers of used cars didn’t have their cost increase, so what was the forcing function for price increases except greed?

Which brings me to corporate profits…

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> “Market price” is a hallucination that you can ignore. You’re not forced to go along with it.

It's a powerful signal containing important information! You don't have to go along with it, but it may be beneficial to others if you do.

As an example, we bought a new car in 2019. We were planning to sell our old car but every time we were about to sell it, it came in handy - family came to town and we needed two cars, or it was nice to be able to go two places at once.

In 2020, prices shot up. Suddenly, it was worth it to sell the car.

Someone who valued it more than us got to use the vehicle. Was that greed?

> Someone who valued it more than us got to use the vehicle. Was that greed?

You sold it because you could get more money for it. That’s what greed is - you chose more money. You could make the case that you weren’t behaving immorally -not everything in life has to be a charity- but you acted out of a selfish desire for more money.

I’d also argue that “value it more” is pretty flimsy. Yes in a shortage the buyer clearly needed a car and was willing to spend more to acquire it instead of waiting for prices to drop. But you clearly didn’t value it beyond the 2019 price based on your stated desire to sell then, it was just an inconvenient transaction.

No, what you're describing has nothing to do with greed. Self-interest is not the same as greed. There would be nothing between greed and charity using according to your definition. Indeed, keeping the car when they didn't need it would also be greed. The only in-between is selling it for a fair value - but there is no objective fair price.

So you give all of your stuff, including your labor/knowledge, away?

That’s not greed. Greed implies excess and has a strongly negative connotation. Just any old decision that benefits self is not greed. Choosing a higher paying job is not greed. Selling something at market rate is not greed. Would you really sell a car or a house without taking into account ANY market information?

> > Someone who valued it more than us got to use the vehicle. Was that greed? > > You sold it because you could get more money for it. That’s what greed is - you chose more money.

If "following market price signals to decide what to produce and sell" is greed, then EVERYTHING is greed.

You make clothes on Etsy, and suddenly people will pay more for silver clothes because Beyonce tells her fans to wear silver. So you make more silver clothes, and sell them for more money to more happy buyers… greedy you!

You have a shelf full of books. One of them is signed by a famous author. It's cool to have it as a conversation piece. That author dies, and suddenly the book is worth enough to pay for some needed home repairs. So you sell it… greedy you!

So what price do you sell it for and who do you choose to sell to at your below market price?

I usually list slightly above market then knock a bunch off if the buyer seems like a decent person with a real problem.

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