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Obviously people might not like it, but can you summarize the moral arguments against it?
by s3cur3 6y ago
Obviously people might not like it, but can you summarize the moral arguments against it?
- CameronNemo 6y agoMoral arguments against price discrimination center around fairness and inefficient outcomes. For example if a vaccine for an infectious disease was priced higher for people who are more likely to be exposed to that disease (because they have a greater willingness to pay), it could create an unfair burden on this buyer segment and even place the overall population health at risk. Just because a seller knows they have greater leverage over this vulnerable population.
- munificent 6y agoI think medical care is a problematic example to use because health is already fraught with moral connotations, and medicine as a product category is not at all conducive to an efficient market. Arguing, even correctly, that price discrimination is bad for healthcare does not necessarily imply that it's bad for other things. Healthcare is different.
- CameronNemo 6y agoTake education as another example Parents a and b are considering whether to enroll their children in a private school. Parent A lives in a nice neighborhood that can lobby for better funding for public schools. Parent B lives in a worse school district. The private school realizes that parent B has worse options, and that they can upcharge parent B. The private school knows that at a certain price point parent A will simply decide to send their child to the high quality public school in their district, so they charge that parent less. Parent B is disadvantaged because they have weaker bargaining power, and the price discrimination is simply exacerbating existing inequalities in the community. I don't think that price discrimination is inherently unethical. But the criteria used to discriminate can certainly be unethical. Look up "reverse redlining" for example.
- munificent 6y agoAgain, schooling is another example that is already heavily morally loaded (the opportunity we pass on to our children may be the most important aspect of all of society) and where there is nothing even approximating an efficient market.
- CameronNemo 6y agoReverse redlining has to do with housing. That is a market with many buyers and sellers, relatively good information symmetry, etc.
- philwelch 6y agoExcept if you try and price gouge parent B, it doesn’t work because they’re poor. So instead you price gouge parent A because they are rich, by raising tuition and giving a charitable scholarship/discount/etc. to parent B.
- CameronNemo 6y agoWho said parent B has less money for education than parent B? I just said they live in a worse neighborhood for public schools.
- philwelch 6y agoClassic price discrimination is when people who can afford to pay more, pay more. Most people consider this more just rather than less just.
- CameronNemo 6y agoI learned that price discrimination is about willingness to pay, which can be influenced by ability to pay but is not directly equivalent.