Maduro blames Venezuela's biggest food company for scarcities

[Flatulo]

28. How is the value of a thing determined? At the simplest level, it is the cost of the labor,

materials, marketing and distribution, plus a profit for the producer for his troubles. If the product has value added beyond that, such as cachet (think Apple stuff) and the market is willing to support the price, then the price will rise. If people cannot afford it or simply don't see the value, then they won't buy it and the price will fall, or a competitor will come along and make a comparable product for less.

I believe you're calling this manipulation, but it's how markets work.

Some items, like medicine, are more difficult to price. It may cost $2b to produce a unique new pharmaceutical that would never be sold in sufficient quantities to recover the R&D cost, yet the producer can't sell any at $5000 per tablet. What do they do then? I believe this is a special case, and the government may be justified in granting subsidies to the manufacturer to help them bring it to market.

But in commodities like energy and food staples, there are plenty of people who know how to raise cattle or poultry or grow grain or extract oil, so market forces tend to work. Now if a cartel forms for the purpose of fixing prices (like OPEC), then that is what I would call manipulation, because there is usually no competition outside of the cartel.

You seem to be in denial of the graphs linked above explaining supply and demand. May I ask what you see to be the flaw in the model? I mean, one can ignore it, turn all production over to the state and let them operate at a loss in perpetuity, but history has shown us that centrally controlled economies have chronic shortages. Always.