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>> "1. Stepping back, isn't it more absurd that people are, by default, charged more unless they spend significant time dealhunting? The claim is not that the d

>> "1. Stepping back, isn't it more absurd that people are, by default, charged more unless they spend significant time dealhunting? The claim is not that the disparity itself is unjust, just that it's time for this to come to an end." I strongly dislike such tactics since it causes people to waste a ton of time dealhunting, but isn't this usually to the benefit of the poor? These tactics allow companies to price discriminate and charge the rich more -- since they won't spend the time clipping coupons, waiting inline on black friday, or waiting for sales -- and thus theoretically subsidizes the 'discounted' prices for the poor. On a separate note, what information from my email gets sent to your servers? Do you run a search for "Amazon", "receipts", etc. in GMail's cloud, then only send matching email to your server?

ericglyman 11y ago
Me too man! On time spent dealhunting -- data from the Federal Reserve shows that it goes the other way: http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/working-papers/wp2014-24.pdf http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/working-.... It's counter-intuitive, but the wealthy actually spend more time shopping than the poor, not less. On the second -- exactly. Paribus is designed to only pull in emails that appear to be from known merchants (Amazon, Bonobos, Best Buy, etc.).
PhasmaFelis 11y ago
> I strongly dislike such tactics since it causes people to waste a ton of time dealhunting, but isn't this usually to the benefit of the poor? These tactics allow companies to price discriminate and charge the rich more -- since they won't spend the time clipping coupons, waiting inline on black friday, or waiting for sales -- and thus theoretically subsidizes the 'discounted' prices for the poor. Even without ericglyman's link to corroborating data, I would assume it goes the other way. Coupon-clipping and online deal-hunting requires time and, especially, emotional energy that the poor often don't have; and since the poor generally have to use essential items until they physically fail, and then scrabble frantically for the first available half-decent replacement, they don't have the luxury of waiting for special sales.

ericglyman 11y ago

Me too man! On time spent dealhunting -- data from the Federal Reserve shows that it goes the other way: http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/working-papers/wp2014-24.pdf http://www.frbsf.org/economic-research/publications/working-.... It's counter-intuitive, but the wealthy actually spend more time shopping than the poor, not less. On the second -- exactly. Paribus is designed to only pull in emails that appear to be from known merchants (Amazon, Bonobos, Best Buy, etc.).

PhasmaFelis 11y ago

> I strongly dislike such tactics since it causes people to waste a ton of time dealhunting, but isn't this usually to the benefit of the poor? These tactics allow companies to price discriminate and charge the rich more -- since they won't spend the time clipping coupons, waiting inline on black friday, or waiting for sales -- and thus theoretically subsidizes the 'discounted' prices for the poor. Even without ericglyman's link to corroborating data, I would assume it goes the other way. Coupon-clipping and online deal-hunting requires time and, especially, emotional energy that the poor often don't have; and since the poor generally have to use essential items until they physically fail, and then scrabble frantically for the first available half-decent replacement, they don't have the luxury of waiting for special sales.