Today, price formation is understood as the result of the social and political forces operating within the market field, ideally resulting in an "equilibrium" between demand and supply reflected in the price. The dominant narrative argues that prices result from the impersonal, rational choices of countless people participating in market exchange.
But the price-formation process is often an "administered" price that one party with disproportionate power, usually the seller, dictates to the other party. But on some occasions, commoners with the capacity and provisioning power decide to take price into their own hands, refusing to charge what the market will bear (a higher price) and instead setting a market price based on the simple question: "What do we actually need to produce what we need and dignify our lives?" In such circumstances, price-sovereignty is at work. The price selected meets provisioning needs, not maximum financial wants.
Picture an society in which corruption is rampant, provisioning for basic needs is grotesquely inefficient, and violence is routine. This is Venezuela in 2017. In such a context, the Cecosesola omni-commons ignores the "price mechanism" as a competitive process and instead asks the producers to disclose what they would accept for their production. Then calculations are made - in the open and together. A price is fixed and then converted into an average price for everything, a kind of food-flatrate. [SILKE: THIS PROCESS SOUNDS LIKE A STANDARD MARKET NEGOTIATION, OR SIMPLY A BUSINESS THAT DECIDES TO CHARGE A LOWER PRICE BECAUSE ITS BUSINESS MODEL & LOWER PRICING WOULD GIVE IT GREATER MARKET SHARE. ETC. THE DIFFERENCE WITH CECOSESOLA NEEDS TO BE MADE CLEARER.] Cecosesola feeds (NEW NUMBERS IN THEIR REPORT) and its impact on competitors is so powerful that it drives market prices lower (in comparison to prices in other federal states).
Municipal Water Supply : only charged for operating expenses plus a minimum nominal flat, which is close to the Cecosesola model.