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"Look there's a guy selling heroin over there! An interesting/scary demonstration of total free-market capitalism!" /rollseyes
by roel_v 16y ago
"Look there's a guy selling heroin over there! An interesting/scary demonstration of total free-market capitalism!"
/rollseyes
- billybob 16y agoI think maybe the point of the parent comment, or at least the point that I see, is that there is benefit to the consumer in having things like trademarks be enforced. Copyright and patents are intended to benefit the public by incentivizing creators to make more stuff. Whether that works is debatable. But trademark is intended (or at least has the effect) of helping consumers identify a product's maker. If I buy an Acme Rocket Sled, it's because I've heard that Acme makes good ones. It sucks for me if I can never tell a real Acme from a fake one; I can't purchase with any confidence. And while maybe the blogosphere could help me find out where to get real Acmes, it really seems more efficient if we just outlaw making knockoffs and penalize those who do. If it's not Acme, I want it to have a different label.
- mhb 16y agoIt sure seems like the point was to take a gratuitous swipe at free market capitalism. And if it wasn't the lack of clarity regarding the actual target of the gratuitous swipe deserves at least a modicum of disapprobation.
- SoftwareMaven 16y agoThat is only true if you are if the mindset that there can be nothing wrong with unfettered, free-market capitalism. While it is certainly better than many other economic philosophies, it would be a mistake to pretend it is perfect.
- mhb 16y agoIt is also true if you prefer a reasoned argument to a gratuitous swipe.
- raganwald 16y agoI don't get your sarcasm. Selling heroin is a very good example of how unfettered free market capitalism leads to circumstances where people sell things that are harmful to their customers. Likewise tobacco. Likewise unsafe cars, Baby clothes made out of plastic that sticks to the skin when exposed to flame, and many other things that we have deemed enough of a harm to society that we attempt to fetter at least part of the free market. So yes, obviously, heroin is a good example of places where we have decided that the free market is a bit too free. This is another example of a place where the free market might be a bit too free. Is there anything wrong with that?
- joe_the_user 16y agoAnd oddly enough, Recreational drugs are a place where I'd say attempts at regulation have extremely counter-productive. IE, look at the massive drug war in Mexico. That could you buy tobacco/heroin/alcohol if you wanted it is the worst argument against a pure libertarian society. The better argument against a pure libertarian society is that you might find heroin in your soup and your cough medicine even if you didn't want it.
- raganwald 16y agoSorry, I am not going to be dragged into an argument about recreational drug use in a thread about bogus USB drives. Nor am I going to argue the truth of an argument about bogus USB drives being a necessary side effect of this wonderful free market capitalism the US claims to enjoy. What I claim is that making arguments about free market capitalism in light of behaviour around selling bogus USB drives is reasonable enough that it contributes positively to HN, and that while you or anyone else might disagree, such an argument does not deserve scorn.
- giardini 16y agoThis is sad, but I read recently that there is extremely heavy demand for Afghanistan opium and that the demand is driven by the Chinese market.