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Right. And I don't think we should fault dealers for wanting to make as much money as possible. They're a business after all. I usually do the same when I sell
by atestu 4y ago
Right. And I don't think we should fault dealers for wanting to make as much money as possible. They're a business after all.
I usually do the same when I sell stuff second-hand because my priority is getting rid of it as fast as possible, not to make the most money. Since dealers have very limited inventories these days, they should take more time to get a better price.
- n4r9 4y ago> They're a business after all. I'd argue that using this phrase to write off wider ethical concerns is one of the key issues here.
- millerm 4y agoExactly. Many people actually ”need” things, but always end up getting beaten by the person who has more $. It’s just constant battering of people that aren’t as well off as others. It’s often a disgusting system. The poor always suffer due to this “I’ll just hand wave to the ethics and talk about capitalism“.
- coryrc 4y agoCapitalism brought hundreds of millions out of abject poverty in the last thirty years. It has real consequences. The poor in the US have better living standards than half the planet and every opportunity to better except their own cultures holding them back. The left refuses to acknowledge or deal with this, creating generational poverty. What's not to blame is "capitalism".
- n4r9 4y agoYou're making a few disingenuous claims. Firstly, that it is illegitimate to criticise capitalism because it has created some benefits. As if we're not even allowed to dream of system reform because we're currently doing better than other countries. Very little social or economic progress would be made if we all thought like this. Secondly, that those benefits are purely due to unadulterated capitalism. In reality, Western countries follow a mixture of capitalist, statist, and socialist policies. The poor in the US have seen improvements because of the minimum wage, anti-trust regulations, and various social safety nets combined with economic growth. Thirdly, that the only thing holding other countries back is "their own cultures". This ignores widespread, long-term destabilising interference by Western countries in Africa, the Middle East, South Asia and South America.
- mind-blight 4y agoCapital markets are really great at some things, and really bad at others. Treating them as a one-size-fits-all solution for our problems is inefficient and dogmatic. We end up coupling our moral values with the system we use to try to enforce said values
- ReptileMan 4y agoHow raising pricies is unethical? We are talking about somewhat luxury goods here - new cars.
- n4r9 4y agoPeople who can no longer buy the new car will instead buy a lower priced car, encouraging an upward trend in general car prices.
- ReptileMan 4y agoAnd then manufacturers will increase supply and prices will go down. I am fairly open to the argument that price gouging for necessities in times of sudden life threatening crunch is not ok, but car market is operating like a normal market.
- n4r9 4y agoExcept that, in this case, chip shortages and a supply-chain crisis mean that supply won't increase.
- hellojesus 4y agoThen the market is acting rationally and allocating limited goods to the highest bidder. Prices would go down if the population stopped purchasing at the given prices. But all it takes is one person to buy at a price just above yours to keep you out of the market.
- n4r9 4y agoI'm not arguing against the dynamics of the current economic system. I'm challenging whether "that's business after all" is a sound ethical defense of a decision to raise new car prices in this climate. You could just as easily claim that industry consolidation is "rational" because it the people making the deals make a lot of money, but the overall effect is often bad for society.