Factory of The Mind

A theory of a ‘Fair Marketplace’ or a ‘Fair Price’ may be a good starting point for the creation of a Fair Marketplace. But is it a necessary condition? Let’s explore. Let us consider the starting point as the presence of connected market participants (providers and consumers of goods and services) who are willing to act in this direction and who don’t distrust each other. There may or may not be a reason to trust, but it is sufficient if there is no reason to distrust. Let us see if these ingredients are sufficient to get started. There may not be a shared theory, philosophy, or ideology. You may not understand economics at all. You may not know or agree that the prevailing market practices are exploitative and unfair. If you say, “I am committing to participate in a marketplace, which is based on fair (non-exploitative) prices, not co-related with or based on the prices determined by the existing market forces.”, we’re on. The first step is to create a laundry list of peopl...

Problem Statement: Coconut prices dipped sharply sometime last month owing, perhaps to over supply or lack of demand. Farmers suffered because they could not recover the costs.  Understanding, Analysing and Solving the Problem:   The proceeds from coconut sales were supposed to be sufficient to meet the livelihood expenses of the farmer in addition to covering the direct and indirect costs of growing the coconuts. At this stage, let us assume that the price paid for growing the coconuts (labour, etc) are fair.  Let us focus on two assumptions of the problem. First, that the buyer is unwilling to pay a price higher than the one determined by the market. Second, that the seller has an understanding of what is fair price. Let us begin with the second assumption. Is the seller equipped to determine the fair price, without reference to the previous market price? If we assume that there is a buyer who is willing to pay a price, which is fair, will he be able to calcula...