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It's literally everything that people in relatively free markets buy. Microsoft Windows is a great example that people will get really angry about, but like bu
by maxerickson 9mo ago
It's literally everything that people in relatively free markets buy.
Microsoft Windows is a great example that people will get really angry about, but like bubble gum also enriches the producer, seller and buyer.
- simianwords 9mo agoIt’s concerning that this was even a question!!!
- ipaddr 9mo agoThose are not great examples. Bubble gum puts the buyer in a worse dental health situation. Windows is a monopoly that controls the desktop market and the buyer would have been better off with a richer market with a variety of options. You could have said cigarettes. They provide the same pleasure benefits as gum with unhealthy outcomes for the buyer.
- maxerickson 9mo agoYou are making the mistake of asserting that the buyer exactly shares your values. With Windows, I didn't assert that it was the value maximizing case, merely that it benefits both parties. Which it does, mostly likely to the advantage of the buyers.
- DetectDefect 9mo agoBy the same logic, an inmate in prison is benefiting from incarceration because they are receiving food and housing. Obviously, the costs of being imprisoned is greater than any "enrichment" from it, and this is exactly the case with Windows and almost all technology.
- maxerickson 9mo agoI would you my statement about relatively free markets addresses that. Businesses that expand their licensing agreements with Microsoft aren't doing it because they are being coerced.
- DetectDefect 9mo ago"Free" market coercion is probably the only reason companies like Microsoft are still in business.