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tldr: read "shop craft is soul craft" in theory it could have been solved by a more competitive market. I believe most shortfalls in our current market econom
by gnarbarian 3y ago
tldr: read "shop craft is soul craft"
in theory it could have been solved by a more competitive market.
I believe most shortfalls in our current market economy stem from a lack of competition and then subsequent cartel style collusion for the few big players, high barriers to entry that are fortified through regulatory capture, and a tendency for lots of small players in tight competition to consolidate over time into fewer bigger players. (I think we need to disincentiveze consolidation in all but the most egregious cases of natural monopolies like most public utilities)
this answers so many questions from "why is it so hard to work on my new car" to "why do my tennis shoes wear out so fast".
there are also cultural factors. people using the tools aren't the same craftsmen who build, repair, and sell them. each of these disciplines is now siloed and few companies are putting real effort into considering this holistic lifecycle view of their products.
then when these options do exist people may not be aware, or obtaining them is more immediately expensive or less convenient in the short term. or they simply don't care.
- JohnFen 3y ago> I believe most shortfalls in our current market economy stem from a lack of competition That set of problem is indeed enormous. I'm not arguing otherwise. But there is also an enormous set of problems that can't be solved by more competition, but people put forth "more competition" as a solution anyway. Increasing competition is valuable, but it's not a panacea. I'm far from convinced that this particular problem can be solved by more competition for a few reasons, but the primary one is this: the established players have shown that behaving this way will maximize profit. New players in the space have a greater economic pressure to do the same than to do differently.
- bogwog 3y agoCan you give a good example of a market problem that can’t be solved through increased competition?
- ambicapter 3y ago> shortfalls in our current market economy and > market problem are two different classes of problems.
- zamnos 3y agoThere many that are! An interesting question is if increased competition (from the same competitors) comes at the hand of government regulation. Let's say for product X there are competitors A and B. They're not really actively competing, and in fact, have divided the market up between them. Then along comes the government, and says "Hey you two (John Deere and Caterpillar, or Apple and Google), you've formed a duopoly", and pushes some regulation (say, right to repair, or 3rd party app stores) on them.
- zamnos 3y agoHow many more competitors (factories) do you need to see before it becomes painfully obvious that businesses don't and won't care about global warming unless it becomes material to their bottom line? (Or they're companies who's executives believe in that mission, eg Patagonia).
- zamnos 3y agoI'm reminded of when Boba exploded in popularity. The story goes there was one store in the food court, then it got super popular, so then there were five stores, but there wasn't the market to support five of them in the same food court, so then they all folded. There was a market for one of those stores. Increased competition split the market up too much so there weren't enough sales to sustain any stores, leading to a failure of the market to maintain a Boba store in a food court that's able to sustain one.
- dragonwriter 3y agoAny problem involving externalities rather than monopoly.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- JohnFen 3y ago
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]