4 ms·

Can you resell life insurance when you have no more use for it and they need it?

by samlevine 15y ago

RexRollman 15y ago
Bad example; life insurance is a service.
- hugh3 15y ago
  Actually I think it could be a reasonable example in one sense: it gets us on to the question of "what is the difference between a good and a service, anyway"? A physical book is undeniably a good. But what about an eBook? An eBook is arguably a service -- you pay for the right to have a the words of the physical book show up on your little screen.
  - bad_user 15y ago
    Then companies should use the proper wording - "rent" instead of "buy".
    - noarchy 15y ago
      It really isn't renting, either, is it? It falls in this strange grey area where you don't truly own it, but there's nothing comparable to a lease (though I can see someone arguing that a ToS agreement is akin to one). DRM'ed books seem, to me, like buying a dead tree book, but only being able to read it on a particular kind of desk, or using a particular kind of lamp, each probably made by the book publisher. And yeah, that little detail about not being able to sell it, or even give it away once you've read it.
      - bad_user 15y ago
        Dude, it's renting. Capitalism is held together because of this notion called private ownership of property. The notion of private property is very important and there is no gray area - you either own something and it's your property, or you don't. Except for copyright (which should really be reinvented because it's no longer relevant in its current form), you own copies of dead-tree books, with which you can do anything you want, including reading it 30 years later, lending it to others, sell it for huge sums of money (if you can find a buyer) or set it on fire in protest :) And I'm all for content authors to be properly rewarded, but using "buy" as if you're going to own that book is more deceiving than ever, and people have a right to know what they are getting into.
    - hugh3 15y ago
      You don't "rent" a service. You buy one. I'm gonna go buy a lapdance.
  - c0riander 15y ago
    Actually, with an eBook you pay for the words of that specific book to show up on your screen. (I notice you say "the words of the physical book," which implies that you do think the dead trees are the good, not the words printed on them -- I think most people you tried to sell the blank word-conveyor (paper) to would not agree.) It's been easy to be intellectually lazy up to this point, saying a printed book is a good because it feels nice to hold in our hands. But maybe it's actually always been a good (the words, the story) combined with a service (the paper as a delivery method - and looking at the attention in publishing paid to paper quality, bindings, design, etc seems to bear that out). Now we're just seeing the service part be delivered in an overtly separate way.

Can you resell life insurance when you have no more use for it and they need it?

RexRollman 15y ago

Bad example; life insurance is a service.

hugh3 15y ago
Actually I think it could be a reasonable example in one sense: it gets us on to the question of "what is the difference between a good and a service, anyway"? A physical book is undeniably a good. But what about an eBook? An eBook is arguably a service -- you pay for the right to have a the words of the physical book show up on your little screen.
- bad_user 15y ago
  Then companies should use the proper wording - "rent" instead of "buy".
  - noarchy 15y ago
    It really isn't renting, either, is it? It falls in this strange grey area where you don't truly own it, but there's nothing comparable to a lease (though I can see someone arguing that a ToS agreement is akin to one). DRM'ed books seem, to me, like buying a dead tree book, but only being able to read it on a particular kind of desk, or using a particular kind of lamp, each probably made by the book publisher. And yeah, that little detail about not being able to sell it, or even give it away once you've read it.
    - bad_user 15y ago
      Dude, it's renting. Capitalism is held together because of this notion called private ownership of property. The notion of private property is very important and there is no gray area - you either own something and it's your property, or you don't. Except for copyright (which should really be reinvented because it's no longer relevant in its current form), you own copies of dead-tree books, with which you can do anything you want, including reading it 30 years later, lending it to others, sell it for huge sums of money (if you can find a buyer) or set it on fire in protest :) And I'm all for content authors to be properly rewarded, but using "buy" as if you're going to own that book is more deceiving than ever, and people have a right to know what they are getting into.
  - hugh3 15y ago
    You don't "rent" a service. You buy one. I'm gonna go buy a lapdance.
- c0riander 15y ago
  Actually, with an eBook you pay for the words of that specific book to show up on your screen. (I notice you say "the words of the physical book," which implies that you do think the dead trees are the good, not the words printed on them -- I think most people you tried to sell the blank word-conveyor (paper) to would not agree.) It's been easy to be intellectually lazy up to this point, saying a printed book is a good because it feels nice to hold in our hands. But maybe it's actually always been a good (the words, the story) combined with a service (the paper as a delivery method - and looking at the attention in publishing paid to paper quality, bindings, design, etc seems to bear that out). Now we're just seeing the service part be delivered in an overtly separate way.