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The time of retailers being 'honest' is over. Scamming, bargaining and the likes were a big part of business. Bargaining was normal before certain religious bel

The time of retailers being 'honest' is over. Scamming, bargaining and the likes were a big part of business. Bargaining was normal before certain religious beliefs (like the quakers and calvinists, similar religious beliefs were found with catholics), The fact it was more efficient with the industrial revolution not to do so helped it. When you lose both those factors it's bound to come up again. People don't 'really' believe anymore in the west, doesn't bother me so much besides the fact that nothing better really replaced it. Better operation research/management/computers now allow for the bargaining to be done 'efficiently'. Nobody in the US cares about this anyway, who cares if Zuckerberg makes billions scamming people. People were brought into passivity by the same culture industry and the politicians gain from these guys, they're cash cows for the US. I don't see how things could get better.

parineum 9mo ago
> The time of retailers being 'honest' is over. First, I'm not sure it ever started. Second, this article is about moving towards honesty.
- boelboel 9mo ago
  After years of scamming customers, amazon has finally seen the light and won't be prioritizing shareholder returns (which they're legally required to do). In reality hey're just trying to tone down the scamming they've been doing ever so slightly because it's hurting revenue. 100% sure it will just end up at 2019 or 2021 amazon scam levels, Some sort of 'scamming optimum' for amazon. If you think it never started try going to some third world country and compare, their people are used to the bargaining/scamming but nobody cares. Things will end up the same here at some point.
technothrasher 9mo ago
I'm not exactly sure what you're saying here. Are you implying that secularism is the cause of counterfeit goods on Amazon? Or am I reading you wrong?
- boelboel 9mo ago
  Secularism, changes in 'christianity' in the US. I'm not some christian nationalist but I do believe changes in values allowed Amazon to do this. Maybe I'm wrong and people will end up going against this in the long term. The 'christian' view of this behaviour didn't come from a vacuum. My biggest worry is the passivity/docile nature of people nowadays can't bring such change.
  - HumanOstrich 9mo ago
    Looking at it through a religious lens is pretty narrow-minded. Secular people have values too. You're limiting your ability to understand the world around you.
    - R_D_Olivaw 9mo ago
      I would reckon looking at these kinds of things through religious lenses is actually VERY useful. I don't follow sportsball, but there are masses of population and massive institutions that are built upon for and on sportsball. So, seeing large changes or shifts within sportsball can be useful in gleaning some sort of trend. While, I don't fully follow the gp comment, I can see the other side of yours.
      - HumanOstrich 9mo ago
        It's more like following astrology - entirely irrelevant to reality.
        R_D_Olivaw 9mo ago
        Your comment is entirely irrelevant to most of the human beings on this planet. And yet, you took the time to type it out. And will even spend some time defending it, proposing it. Narrow worldviews have utility to one, but don't encompass "reality" as such.
    - boelboel 9mo ago
RiverCrochet 9mo ago
Not seeing the connection. In "non-secular times" people as a whole were far less mobile, so they grew up and built connections around the same people, and any connections to the wider world were very low-bandwidth if they existed at all. So they trusted the people they were near because they were around them constantly, and also tended to resist change. I think you are conflating religious values with how things were when people mostly lived among the same people for most of their lives and didn't have modern communication methods that brought the whole world (or an appearance thereof which is what modern social media is) to their face.

parineum 9mo ago

> The time of retailers being 'honest' is over. First, I'm not sure it ever started. Second, this article is about moving towards honesty.

boelboel 9mo ago
After years of scamming customers, amazon has finally seen the light and won't be prioritizing shareholder returns (which they're legally required to do). In reality hey're just trying to tone down the scamming they've been doing ever so slightly because it's hurting revenue. 100% sure it will just end up at 2019 or 2021 amazon scam levels, Some sort of 'scamming optimum' for amazon. If you think it never started try going to some third world country and compare, their people are used to the bargaining/scamming but nobody cares. Things will end up the same here at some point.

technothrasher 9mo ago

I'm not exactly sure what you're saying here. Are you implying that secularism is the cause of counterfeit goods on Amazon? Or am I reading you wrong?

boelboel 9mo ago
Secularism, changes in 'christianity' in the US. I'm not some christian nationalist but I do believe changes in values allowed Amazon to do this. Maybe I'm wrong and people will end up going against this in the long term. The 'christian' view of this behaviour didn't come from a vacuum. My biggest worry is the passivity/docile nature of people nowadays can't bring such change.
- HumanOstrich 9mo ago
  Looking at it through a religious lens is pretty narrow-minded. Secular people have values too. You're limiting your ability to understand the world around you.
  - R_D_Olivaw 9mo ago
    I would reckon looking at these kinds of things through religious lenses is actually VERY useful. I don't follow sportsball, but there are masses of population and massive institutions that are built upon for and on sportsball. So, seeing large changes or shifts within sportsball can be useful in gleaning some sort of trend. While, I don't fully follow the gp comment, I can see the other side of yours.
    - HumanOstrich 9mo ago
      It's more like following astrology - entirely irrelevant to reality.
      - R_D_Olivaw 9mo ago
        Your comment is entirely irrelevant to most of the human beings on this planet. And yet, you took the time to type it out. And will even spend some time defending it, proposing it. Narrow worldviews have utility to one, but don't encompass "reality" as such.
  - boelboel 9mo ago

RiverCrochet 9mo ago

Not seeing the connection. In "non-secular times" people as a whole were far less mobile, so they grew up and built connections around the same people, and any connections to the wider world were very low-bandwidth if they existed at all. So they trusted the people they were near because they were around them constantly, and also tended to resist change. I think you are conflating religious values with how things were when people mostly lived among the same people for most of their lives and didn't have modern communication methods that brought the whole world (or an appearance thereof which is what modern social media is) to their face.