bsmall2May 27
> ... through contrivance he can impose.. diseconornies on other[s]..bargaining within the new market.. will... make him better off. The more significant the social cost imposed upon his neighbor, the greater will be his reward... It follows from the orthodox assumption of #MaximizingMan that each man will create a maximum of #SocialCosts which he can impose on others. D'Arge and I have labeled this process "the invisible foot" of the laissez faire ... market place.
https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/zbooks/www/books/3/3.htm#3.2.1
#InvisibleFoot #LaissesFaire #EKHunt #AlbertHahnel
Chapter 3 - externalities and Public Goods

criticism of the traditional treatment of externalities and public goods and the exciting literature on

bsmall2May 27

A costly example of The Invisible Foot!?!??

> Despite taking a far more expansive look at the union-busting industry, the report acknowledges that it understates what employers actually spend to suppress organizing. It excludes many internal costs β€” such as maintaining union-prevention systems and employee surveillance operations β€” as well as major external costs beyond consultants and anti-union law firms.

https://jacobin.com/2026/05/union-busting-cost-management-profits

#UnionBusting #UnionBustingCosts #InvisibleFoot

The Real Cost of Union Busting Is Much Higher Than You Think

A new study reveals that employers are spending big to maintain their dictatorial control over the workplace and crush unions. It’s a daunting amount of money, but it’s not impossible to overcome if workers can act with clarity, unity, and strategy.

Show threadbsmall2May 21
🧡
> more benefit to ADM is the.. sugar program. The program runs like a mini-OPEC: setting prices, limiting production, and forcing Americans to spend $1.4 billion per year more for sugar, according to the General Accounting Office... aside from a small subsidiary in Metairie, La., ADM has no interest in sugar. Its concern is to keep sugar prices high to prevent.. customers that replaced cane sugar with corn sweeteners from switching back. β€œThe sugar program acts as an umbrella for them... It protects them from economic competition.”
#InvisibleFoot
bsmall2Nov 10, 2025
Maybe there are decent uses for the "#OneWire" but with notebook PCs it's just adding another part that can break, yet another "planned obsolescence" strategy that also helps lock people into a certain brand's AC adaptors or ink or whatever. Two used Panasonic CF-MX5 PCs after a year or so won't take power though they came with Panasonic power cords.. Switching cords fixed one somehow but it's un-needed aggravation for stupid policy!? Yet Another Example of the #InvisibleFoot ?
https://project-insanity.org/2020/05/25/hardware-fix-for-dell-ac-power-adapter-could-not-be-determined/
https://www.monodeasobu.com/entry/2021/08/09/195452
https://takabus.com/tips/2045/
bs2Jan 8, 2025

"The Invisible Foot" of "Self-Maximizing Man"... The worse things get for everyone else the better for them? Is that how "the economy" works?

> Many top billionaires have seen their wealth surge since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
https://www.counterpunch.org/2025/01/08/349313/

#Billionaires #CovidBillionaires #InvisibleFoot of #EKHunt comes to mind....

Billionaire Round-Up, 2024

At the close of 2024 there were 813 billionaires in the United States with a combined total wealth of $6.72 trillion, according to an analysis of the

CounterPunch.org
bs2Aug 7, 2024
Paperwork!
> The more significant the social cost imposed upon his neighbor, the greater will be his reward in... the orthodox assumption of #MaximizingMan that each man will create a maximum of social costs which he can impose on others... this process [is] "the invisible foot" of the #LaissezFaire ... market place. The "#InvisibleFoot" ensures us that in a #FreeMarket ... economy each person.. will.. do his part in maximizing the general public misery...
https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/zbooks/www/books/3/3.htm#3.2.1
#EKHunt
Chapter 3 - externalities and Public Goods

criticism of the traditional treatment of externalities and public goods and the exciting literature on

bs2Jul 6, 2024

> ... because we're being inundated with fake AI content, the researchers say there have been instances when "high profile individuals are able to explain away unfavourable evidence as AI-generated, shifting the burden of proof in costly and inefficient ways."

https://futurism.com/the-byte/google-researchers-paper-ai-internet

#InvisibleFoot #AISalami #InvisibleFootAI #FraudulentAi
/HT @scalzi via @sef

Google Researchers Publish Paper About How AI Is Ruining the Internet

Google researchers have come out with a new paper that warns that generative AI is ruining vast swaths of the internet with fake content.

Futurism
Show threadbs2Jun 22, 2024
Business Stuff doesn't make any sense till I remember the principle (maxim? another vile maxim?) of the "Invisible Foot" explained by E.K. Hunt.
> .. The "invisible foot" ensures us that in a free-market ... economy each person pursuing only his own good will automatically, and most efficiently, do his part in maximizing the general public misery.
- https://mstdn.jp/@bsmall2/108195742682747173
- https://znetwork.org/wp-content/uploads/zbooks/www/books/3/3.htm#3.2.1
#EKHunt #InvisibleFoot #BusinessStuff #WelfareEconomics #NeoLiberalEconomics #DismalProfession
bs2 (@[email protected])

> .. The "invisible foot" ensures us that in a free-market ... economy each person pursuing only his own good will automatically, and most efficiently, do his part in maximizing the general public misery. https://zcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/zbooks/www/books/3/3.htm#3.2.1 #InvisibleFoot #PublicMisery #FreeMarkets #RobertDArge #EKHunt

mstdn.jp
Show threadBrian SmallOct 11, 2023

.> Minamata disease was above all a disease of the spirit to which Japan succumbed as growth, money, material wealth come to be valued above the natural environment or humanity. Forgetting the basic principle that the purpose of economic activity is so that human society might flourish, MITI and the Economic Planning Agency decided that, even if a few people were to fall ill or die from mercury poisoning, corporations should be protected. The authorities in Minamata and some residents seemed to think that, even if a minority of people from the town had to be sacrificed to the disease, Chisso Corporation should be protected as the major employer in the town. The actions of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, that was supposed to protect the health and wellbeing of the people, and of the Environment Ministry, whose supposed rationale was the preservation of nature, including not only humans, cats and dogs, but fish and shellfish, birds, and all creatures, was inexplicable to ordinary citizens. Why, as soon as doubts were raised about the industrial effluent, did they not take steps to stop it? Why, sorry for not having warned people at an early stage and having failed to prevent more people from being infected, did they not make sincere efforts to help people? While they resorted to the excuse that there was nothing an individual official could do about it, the disease became rampant and enormous suffering and death was caused. @bsmall2

Externatlities. If War is the Health of The State mabye Disease is the Health of The Corporation. Sometimes it feels like one concept like E.K. Hunt's "the invisible foot" or the recently(?) named business practice of "wage theft" could be used to explain the current system or "global order" or "economy." "Wage Theft" could be expanded to include the thieving of time, health, peace of mind all stolen to profit pyramid organizations...
#WageTheft #InvisibleFoot #EKHunt #Externalities #RegulatoryCapture #LegalCorruption #MinamataDisease

Show threadbs2Apr 26, 2022
> .. The "invisible foot" ensures us that in a free-market ... economy each person pursuing only his own good will automatically, and most efficiently, do his part in maximizing the general public misery.
https://zcomm.org/wp-content/uploads/zbooks/www/books/3/3.htm#3.2.1
#InvisibleFoot #PublicMisery #FreeMarkets #RobertDArge #EKHunt
Chapter 3 - externalities and Public Goods

criticism of the traditional treatment of externalities and public goods and the exciting literature on