6 ms·
There is no such principle in our free society of what is and isn’t a fair and equitable business transaction. The only tool we have for that is what the market
by gretch 6y ago
There is no such principle in our free society of what is and isn’t a fair and equitable business transaction. The only tool we have for that is what the market (supply and demand) will yield.
I can take a tiny piece of carbon, call it a diamond and sell it for 50,000. Is it fair and equitable? Should that be allowed?
I can take a white T shirt and print a red Supreme logo on it and sell it for 100x cost of production. Is that fair and equitable? Should it be allowed?
The development cost for a book is about $10 dollars of ink and paper. Each copy is printed and distributed for 1 dollar. It took the author 10 hours to write. But the knowledge and insights are extremely valuable. Is it fair and equitable for the author to charge $100 for a copy of this book?
If 30% isn’t allowed, is 29% okay? How about 28%? What exactly is this magic number where things become okay? Don’t businesses have the right to try and profit and not just break even? (If not why would anyone start a new business venture)
If you would argue that we shouldn’t have a free market and the govt should set all the prices in the economy, well that’s a different philosophy entirely. It’s not very popular for a host of reasons
- 40four 6y agoI mean sure, you’re getting really deep and philosophical on economics here. I’m happy to have that conversation too, but I think it’s a different conversation, and one we should have over some beers :) I’m not sure how you took it as far as me arguing against free markets, but I was just trying to speak of my perception of this very specific example. I don’t think it’s fair for them to take 3/10ths of every business on their app stores. That simple. I don’t think the markets think it’s fair either, but they don’t have much choice. At least not on Apple’s platform. I don’t think the government should ever set the prices by default, but if the market and the government decide it’s not fair then they can step in. That’s the whole point of anti-trust laws. Of course businesses have the right to make a profit. I did mention the system I proposed could cover their costs and make some profit. Sorry if I wasn’t clear on that. They should make profit on the app stores. But the current model is particularly offensive to me. I don’t think there is a magic number. I think the idea that all monetary transactions have to go through them and they get a percentage at all is dumb. At it’s heart app stores are just a means of distributing software. Why should they get a cut of the businesses? Maybe we could compare it to credit card transactions. The card reader networks take a 3% cut and we’re all ok with that. They provide the infrastructure to allow the transactions to happen, sure I guess they earned it. If you forced me to pick a ‘magic’ number then I would say it should be similar to that. If Google and Apple took 3-5% none of this would even be a discussion. We probably wouldn’t even care enough to fight it, and they’d still be making money hand over fist on their app stores. Which to be fair aren’t even the main part of their business. It’s just a side huddle for them. But 30% is the kind of cut title loans and pawn brokers take. No way in hell that’s reasonable for a service to distribute software. I’ve got a lot more thoughts on this, especially about the differences between Google and Apple in this regard, but I’ll stop there. I’ve ranted enough tonight:)
- username90 6y ago> The card reader networks take a 3% cut and we’re all ok with that. EU busted that, so in EU it is illegal to take more than a 0.3% cut instead. Because after investigations that was roughly how much they need to be profitable. The 3% fee you see in USA is just 1000% markup. Although I wouldn't be surprised if app store fees are found to be reasonable at about 3% level and EU enforcing that, just like they lowered credit card fees by a factor 10.