6 ms·

That's not last century thinking. You can't create any monopoly for generic drugs, by definition. You're not even forced to buy an an expensive Apple or Google

That's not last century thinking. You can't create any monopoly for generic drugs, by definition. You're not even forced to buy an an expensive Apple or Google phone. You can buy a 200-300 dollar phone with more than decent specs. They reason why people are running around with 1k phones is because it's a status symbol. It's exactly this century where you can buy anything at manufacturing cost from India or China if you want to, there's an entire political class upset about it. I mean I'll give you Comcast, ISPs in the US in particular seem bad, but otherwise? Digital and electronic goods in particular have been driven down to the marginal cost of production, that's why 90% of the former are free.

bjourne 4y ago
Do you have any idea on how I can avoid the excessive interest rate the bank charges on my mortgage? :) Yes I checked, other banks loans are just as expensive. So it seems I'm not able to buy loans at "manufacturing cost" and neither am I able to buy gas or electricity for minimal cost.
- aj7 4y ago
  Never walk into a BANK and apply for a loan. Use one, or better, a number of mortgage brokers. Make a spreadsheet. Add in all garbage fees. Estimate the life of the loan. Now calculate real APR. Points and garbage fees dominate if you’re going to sell or refinance in a few years.
- briandear 4y ago
  You could get a loan at prime rate if you were a bank. You likely aren’t a bank, so a retail loan is what you get. Prime rate is the interest to the bank. Retail rates are higher because there are costs associated with your loan. Those costs also include the degree of risk to the bank.
BbzzbB 4y ago
>You can buy a 200-300 dollar phone with more than decent specs Two weeks ago I got a "9.5" (looks brand new, battery too) used Pixel 3a for 100$ on eBay. It's a perfectly fine phone with picture/video quality undersold by it's camera pixel count.
- regularfry 4y ago
  ...that's out of android updates as of this month. The specs are fine, the security isn't, and that's the problem.
  - BbzzbB 4y ago
    Very fair.
user3939382 4y ago
The missing key concept here is "regulatory capture". In many industries, companies get enough money and power that they can afford to rewrite the laws to lock themselves in and put up a big barrier to entry to keep competition out.
- tsimionescu 4y ago
  There is no regulation in supplement selling, except for food safety. You can sell sugar branded as Vitamin C, and if your customers aren't going to sue you for false advertising or something, you won't have any problems. The prelegeri really is retail capture.
  - CSSer 4y ago
    > prelegeri Sorry, I’m having trouble tracking down this term. Could you tell me what it means or what it means in this context?
    - jodrellblank 4y ago
      Speculation: Google Translate says it's "lesson" in Romanian; tsimionescu's name might make that make sense. Possibly connected to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/praelego#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/praelego#Latin and the form praelegere to 'read before' in Latin, either the same kind of lecture/lesson sense, or about the parent comment "reading 'regulatory capture' before should really be 'retail capture'"?
      - tsimionescu 4y ago
        You're right about Romanian, and the best translation is "lecture", but it was just a bilingual predictive keyboard-assisted mistype - the best kind of mistype!
    - tsimionescu 4y ago
      Oops, that's bilingual predictive auto-correct failing, and me not re-reading my comment... I wanted to say "the problem is retail capture", but somehow it filled in a Romanian word instead... Phone keyboards... Just for completeness, "prelegeri" would be best translated as "lectures" - it made no sense at all in context, it only happened to match a few letters of what I fat-fingered.
Animats 4y ago
You can't create any monopoly for generic drugs, by definition. Sure you can. If you're the dominant player, you can pay or buy out new entrants. Happens all the time in generic drugs.[1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight...
- HomeGear 4y ago
  There has to be more to it. If not, a simple refusal to sell would allow you to move the market. If the sellout bundle is profitable enough, why doesn’t everyone start a generic drug company to be sold and retire rich?
  - ldoughty 4y ago
    Then the competition moves money from profit markets to undercut you... making it impossible to compete... your competition subsedize the costs and effectively sell for 20% below cost until you agree to sell or close shop
    - taffer 4y ago
      How can they sell vitamin c at 10x the bulk price and at the same time undercut you?
      - adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
        small businesses generally can't launch everywhere. a big drug manufacturer can switch to selling at cost in a region for a few months to kill the profit opportunity of a young competitor. also, once they've done that a few times, it prevents others from trying
- fifticon 4y ago
  It happens with a lot of stuff. Chocolate candy bars in gas station kiosks are always the same 5 brands. Anybody _could_ make chocolate bars, but the big players make deals to control retail, so you don't get a choice of other candy bars, in the situation you'd typically buy one. If I control the conditions under which you buy something, I can control what you are going to buy.

bjourne 4y ago

Do you have any idea on how I can avoid the excessive interest rate the bank charges on my mortgage? :) Yes I checked, other banks loans are just as expensive. So it seems I'm not able to buy loans at "manufacturing cost" and neither am I able to buy gas or electricity for minimal cost.

aj7 4y ago
Never walk into a BANK and apply for a loan. Use one, or better, a number of mortgage brokers. Make a spreadsheet. Add in all garbage fees. Estimate the life of the loan. Now calculate real APR. Points and garbage fees dominate if you’re going to sell or refinance in a few years.
briandear 4y ago
You could get a loan at prime rate if you were a bank. You likely aren’t a bank, so a retail loan is what you get. Prime rate is the interest to the bank. Retail rates are higher because there are costs associated with your loan. Those costs also include the degree of risk to the bank.

BbzzbB 4y ago

>You can buy a 200-300 dollar phone with more than decent specs Two weeks ago I got a "9.5" (looks brand new, battery too) used Pixel 3a for 100$ on eBay. It's a perfectly fine phone with picture/video quality undersold by it's camera pixel count.

regularfry 4y ago
...that's out of android updates as of this month. The specs are fine, the security isn't, and that's the problem.
- BbzzbB 4y ago
  Very fair.

user3939382 4y ago

The missing key concept here is "regulatory capture". In many industries, companies get enough money and power that they can afford to rewrite the laws to lock themselves in and put up a big barrier to entry to keep competition out.

tsimionescu 4y ago
There is no regulation in supplement selling, except for food safety. You can sell sugar branded as Vitamin C, and if your customers aren't going to sue you for false advertising or something, you won't have any problems. The prelegeri really is retail capture.
- CSSer 4y ago
  > prelegeri Sorry, I’m having trouble tracking down this term. Could you tell me what it means or what it means in this context?
  - jodrellblank 4y ago
    Speculation: Google Translate says it's "lesson" in Romanian; tsimionescu's name might make that make sense. Possibly connected to https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/praelego#Latin https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/praelego#Latin and the form praelegere to 'read before' in Latin, either the same kind of lecture/lesson sense, or about the parent comment "reading 'regulatory capture' before should really be 'retail capture'"?
    - tsimionescu 4y ago
      You're right about Romanian, and the best translation is "lecture", but it was just a bilingual predictive keyboard-assisted mistype - the best kind of mistype!
  - tsimionescu 4y ago
    Oops, that's bilingual predictive auto-correct failing, and me not re-reading my comment... I wanted to say "the problem is retail capture", but somehow it filled in a Romanian word instead... Phone keyboards... Just for completeness, "prelegeri" would be best translated as "lectures" - it made no sense at all in context, it only happened to match a few letters of what I fat-fingered.

Animats 4y ago

You can't create any monopoly for generic drugs, by definition. Sure you can. If you're the dominant player, you can pay or buy out new entrants. Happens all the time in generic drugs.[1] [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight-increase-in-a-drugs-price-raises-protests.html https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/21/business/a-huge-overnight...

HomeGear 4y ago
There has to be more to it. If not, a simple refusal to sell would allow you to move the market. If the sellout bundle is profitable enough, why doesn’t everyone start a generic drug company to be sold and retire rich?
- ldoughty 4y ago
  Then the competition moves money from profit markets to undercut you... making it impossible to compete... your competition subsedize the costs and effectively sell for 20% below cost until you agree to sell or close shop
  - taffer 4y ago
    How can they sell vitamin c at 10x the bulk price and at the same time undercut you?
    - adgjlsfhk1 4y ago
      small businesses generally can't launch everywhere. a big drug manufacturer can switch to selling at cost in a region for a few months to kill the profit opportunity of a young competitor. also, once they've done that a few times, it prevents others from trying
fifticon 4y ago
It happens with a lot of stuff. Chocolate candy bars in gas station kiosks are always the same 5 brands. Anybody _could_ make chocolate bars, but the big players make deals to control retail, so you don't get a choice of other candy bars, in the situation you'd typically buy one. If I control the conditions under which you buy something, I can control what you are going to buy.