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An entrepreneur is sent to jail for selling widgets. Upon arrival he meets two other businessmen who are locked-up. He asks them, "Why are you here?" The first
by dreamdu5t 14y ago
An entrepreneur is sent to jail for selling widgets. Upon arrival he meets two other businessmen who are locked-up. He asks them, "Why are you here?"
The first guy responds, "I sold widgets for more than anyone else, and they jailed me for excessive profits."
The second guy responds, "I sold widgets at the same price as everyone else, and they jailed me for price collusion."
They ask him, "What'd you do?"
The entrepeneur responds, "I sold widgets for lower than anyone else, so they jailed me for predatory pricing!"
- shadowfox 14y agoI must confess that this went over my head :( What were you implying, if you would care to explain?
- dreamdu5t 14y agoThe article accuses Google of "predatory pricing" and my story is meant to illustrate that any price can be seen as monopolist, collusive, or predatory, and that laws against such things are misguided and reactionary. I might be paraphrasing the story wrong. It's a folk story amongst economists about the absurdity of antitrust regulation. I'm not sure who originated it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing#Criticism http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Predatory_pricing#Criticism