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> Why should they have dropped the price on the phone? Because price gouging is immoral. If Apple was on the margins financially and needed to raise prices to
by bleepblorp 6y ago
> Why should they have dropped the price on the phone?
Because price gouging is immoral.
If Apple was on the margins financially and needed to raise prices to stay in business, that would be one thing. Apple, however, is replete with surplus assets and is taking hard-earned money from other peoples' pockets simply because it can.
There are an awful lot of far more economically productive uses the proceeds of Apple's defacto price increase could be put towards instead of further enriching Apple senior management and shareholders.
- chrisseaton 6y agoApple isn't a charity. Do you take a pay cut when you have money left at the end of the month? Why not? Why not give that back to your employers?
- saagarjha 6y agoPrice gouging is immoral. Making a profit isn't.
- chrisseaton 6y agoThe latest iPhone is not even remotely an essential item. 'Price gouging' as a concept does not apply, and you're watering down the term by trying to do that, which is dangerous.
- saagarjha 6y agoYou don't have to have an essential item to price gouge, though, you just need to charge more money than you otherwise would have to make extra profit. Whether the choice to remove the adapter in this iPhone was just for the profit margin can't be known for certain, but the fact that they removed it in other phones while keeping the price the same makes it seems like it was.
- chrisseaton 6y agoI don't think the definition of price gauging is simply 'it's a bit more expensive than I think it should be compared to what it used to be for this optional luxury item' - if it is then it's a useless concept and we shouldn't worry about it!
- wruza 6y agoWhen you rise prices, you lose sales. When you drop prices, you gain sales. The market price is where a product of these two maximizes. You cannot make more profit by simply rising prices beyond the equilibrium point. That was economics 101 when I was taught it. Is that knowledge now deprecated? Or is iphone now an essential item?
- bleepblorp 6y agoThat's not an equivalent issue. Employees, like consumers, need their money much more than employers (or more to the point, senior managers and shareholders) need it. Wealth and income both have a decreasing marginal utility.[0] [0] https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/12309/concepts/diminishing-marginal-utility-of-income-and-wealth/ https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/12309/concepts/diminishin...
- random314 6y agoApple is not forcing you to buy their phone.
- avalys 6y agoIf you think Apple phones are too expensive, you don’t have to buy one!