4 ms·
This is the free market at work, throwing off its chains. /s
by 394549 8y ago
This is the free market at work, throwing off its chains. /s
- briandear 8y agoWhy do people buy that stuff? They could choose not to.
- jerf 8y agoWell... we're generally used to "adulterants" referring to inactive or even potentially (purely) harmful ingredients being added to things to make them cheaper. However, note that "adulterating" your sexual potency supplement with Viagra means that it will, you know... work. Same with putting steroids in your workout supplement... it makes it work, better than the competition that doesn't do it. There are all kinds of other problems with that, of course. I'm not saying it's a good idea. But in terms of "why would people buy these?", well, I'd suggest part of the reason is that people want to lose weight, be sexually potent, or get swole, and these "adulterated" supplements actually work. Just at a cost you may not have realized you were paying, or intended to pay.
- skookumchuck 8y agoThe free market proscribes fraud.
- 394549 8y agoOnly if you get caught.
- skookumchuck 8y agoThat's like saying "murder is proscribed only if you get caught".
- InclinedPlane 8y agoIn the most abstract way possible: sure, in the real world: not so much.
- skookumchuck 8y agoMisrepresenting your product is fraud and is illegal in a free market.
- InclinedPlane 8y agoMisrepresentation is commonplace, even outright fraud is commonplace. Serious fraud is a multi-billion dollar industry. "Light fraud" and gray area misrepresentation is at least hundreds of billions of dollars a year.
- skookumchuck 8y agoIt's still illegal under a free market, and prosecutable.
- 394549 8y agoThe "free market" doesn't make fraud or misrepresentation illegal, the laws and regulations of the dreaded government do. The worst the free market can do to a fraudster is to stop dealing with her as knowledge of her frauds becomes widely known. That, of course, doesn't work very well to limit fraud.
- refurb 8y agoAre you saying that if there wasn't a free market there wouldn't be fake products? That's obviously false.