The crucial lesson to be drawn from this example is not one of assigning blame or praise. We should recognize that whichever side one supports, one is acknowledging that the lowest, mutually acceptable, price alone is an insuffi¬cient basis for determining the ethical legitimacy of pricing policies. If you sup¬port alternative energy industries, you would say that even though consumers pay a low price for energy, the competition that establishes that price is unfair. If you support subsidies for the nuclear and fossil fuel industries, you would likely claim that other social values (e.g., economic growth, energy indepen¬dence, and so forth) are so important that the price of some goods should not be left to the free market to establish.