Comment by Y_Y

This is the magic of the decentralized, invisible-handed, "free" market. Nobody (in particular) tells you what to do, and (ideally) you reach a canonical equilibrium which may (under some idealised circumstances) be optimal (in some sense).

If ifs and buts were candy and nuts this would be the cat's pyjamas. I shan't deny it's mathematically elegant, and also feels good in many ways, but the real trouble is it's exceptionally hard to form a watertight argument for an alternative.

Put another way, the appeal of the free market isn't so much in its correctness as it is in its simplicity. I can personally attest that it's sumple enough for any fool to understand, in an area of economics where it's devilishly difficult to establish anything solidly.

I say all this as someone who is a big fan of Valve and their work, deapite otherwise being a foss zealot, just because they throw a bone to our sort.