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What do you think are the conditions like at the factories where they make Harry Potter merch? As they say, "Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money
by claudiulodro 5y ago
What do you think are the conditions like at the factories where they make Harry Potter merch? As they say, "Merchandising, merchandising, where the real money from the movie is made."
- MerelyMortal 5y agoI think the conditions are better than the conditions those workers would otherwise face if they didn't freely choose to work there.
- stocknoob 5y agoNice, let’s jump to every externality. I bet she exploited the coal miners who fed the power stations that kept her lights on while writing. And her books sold well enough before the movies and merch.
- claudiulodro 5y agoI'm not saying she's personally responsible for the factory conditions (if anything I'd blame Disney). I'm saying that it's virtually impossible to create a billion dollars of personal wealth without negative externalities somewhere along the line. There are ~500mm Harry Potter books in print (all years, all languages). Author royalties are between 6 and 15 percent of the cover price. She would definitely have been wealthy, but not billionaire.
- stocknoob 5y agoWhy is 10^9 a magic threshold? What's your actual "you've provided too much value to willing participants" amount? If she negotiated royalties of 20% she would have been a bad person? If she put her money in an index fund and it doubled every 10 years, she'd become immoral later?
- claudiulodro 5y agoYeah, fair 'nuff, you've made a convincing argument. Some people can be billionaires without causing too much suffering on the rest of the world.