3 ms·
if you want the free market to work, consumers can’t use price to evaluate quality
by jonfw 3y ago
if you want the free market to work, consumers can’t use price to evaluate quality
- diffeomorphism 3y agoThis is a bit of a chicken and egg problem and too abridged. It is like arguing that for free speech to work everybody has to write newspaper articles or that you personally need to be a programmer for opensource to be useful. These can be different people and for a free market (/free(dom) speech/free(dom) software) to work you need a sufficient number of qualified people. So I wouldn't blame the consumers (btw this term always sounds like slur to me as compared to customers) for using price as a proxy. You can't expect them to get loaners, purchase testing equipment etc.. That should be tech journalists' job and then consumers can make an educated decision, which in turn ensures that price indeed is a good proxy. Hence, blame the sorry state of tech reviews in the American market. What even are the reasonably good sites still left? I know of wirecutter (mixed), rtings, tftcentral and maybe prad.de. What are consumers supposed to base their evaluations on in your opinion?
- jonfw 3y agoPrice is even more easily gamed than reviews, i don’t care how bad reviews get, pricing will always be a terrible signal
- JohnFen 3y ago> So I wouldn't blame the consumers (btw this term always sounds like slur to me as compared to customers) Agree. I try to avoid using the term "consumer" except maybe when it's talking about actually consuming things (such as food and drink).
- yifanl 3y agoWe have price as a proxy precisely because consumers can't accurately evaluate the quality of all goods, especially in an age where spectacle marketing dominates.
- Dylan16807 3y agoEveryone can't do it all the time. Ideally it's like stock pricing where some people put in their knowledge and other people can get a reasonably accurate price most of the time.