3 ms·

It’s not connecting for me how breaking up monopolies is going to stop Chinese clones of Western products from winning price wars. It might change how the margi

It’s not connecting for me how breaking up monopolies is going to stop Chinese clones of Western products from winning price wars. It might change how the margin gets carved up between the people who make the clones and various middlemen but how would it stop the overall trend of cloned products?

eru 3y ago
We should encourage more price wars. They are good for customers.
- chii 3y ago
  Except once the price war is over, the consolidation of market share to one or a few players means that there is a good chance of monopoly pricing. Unless, if the price wars are never over.
  - eru 3y ago
    > Except once the price war is over, the consolidation of market share to one or a few players means that there is a good chance of monopoly pricing. Almost never happens like that.
    - j16sdiz 3y ago
      It always happen like that. That's why there are anti-dump rules on international trades.
      - tonyarkles 3y ago
        Heh, a couple of years ago (maybe true still?) Canada had a 99%! tariff on aluminum extrusion from China. And it was still cheaper than domestically sourced material at twice the price.
      - eru 3y ago
        Alas, no. Just because there are certain rules, and just because people say that those rules are for a specific reason, doesn't imply any actual causality between the reasons given and the rule existing. Especially anti-dumping rules are most often just exploited as a tool to get a competitor in trouble.
adaptbrian 3y ago
It's all about discoverability, you wouldn't find them, tree falling in the woods, no one is around. Does it make a sound?
- fshbbdssbbgdd 3y ago
  I would expect if Amazon disappeared, since people can’t go there to search for products to buy anymore, they’d use Google instead, or some other product search aggregator sites. They’d presumably still list the cheap sellers first (or whoever pays for an ad slot). That would be a huge change in the e-commerce industry, FTC can argue it benefits consumers because the prices of everything will be cheaper without Amazon’s fees, but I’m not seeing how to reduces the prevalence of cloned products.

eru 3y ago

We should encourage more price wars. They are good for customers.

chii 3y ago
Except once the price war is over, the consolidation of market share to one or a few players means that there is a good chance of monopoly pricing. Unless, if the price wars are never over.
- eru 3y ago
  > Except once the price war is over, the consolidation of market share to one or a few players means that there is a good chance of monopoly pricing. Almost never happens like that.
  - j16sdiz 3y ago
    It always happen like that. That's why there are anti-dump rules on international trades.
    - tonyarkles 3y ago
      Heh, a couple of years ago (maybe true still?) Canada had a 99%! tariff on aluminum extrusion from China. And it was still cheaper than domestically sourced material at twice the price.
    - eru 3y ago
      Alas, no. Just because there are certain rules, and just because people say that those rules are for a specific reason, doesn't imply any actual causality between the reasons given and the rule existing. Especially anti-dumping rules are most often just exploited as a tool to get a competitor in trouble.

adaptbrian 3y ago

It's all about discoverability, you wouldn't find them, tree falling in the woods, no one is around. Does it make a sound?

fshbbdssbbgdd 3y ago
I would expect if Amazon disappeared, since people can’t go there to search for products to buy anymore, they’d use Google instead, or some other product search aggregator sites. They’d presumably still list the cheap sellers first (or whoever pays for an ad slot). That would be a huge change in the e-commerce industry, FTC can argue it benefits consumers because the prices of everything will be cheaper without Amazon’s fees, but I’m not seeing how to reduces the prevalence of cloned products.