5 ms·

I really don't see the relevance of your comment. All of what you are saying may be true, but what does it have to do with allowing Amazon to offer whatever di

• pekk 13y ago
  I believe I understand the argument: if the French system has advantages, why should the English-speaking world dictate to France how it should manage its own economy?
  • patrickmay 13y ago
    If the Amazon system has advantages to the individual French citizens, why should the French government dictate how they may spend their money?
    • nraynaud 13y ago
      because the State pays for long terms problems, always?
    • LBarret 13y ago
      Because competition is good in theory but, in practice, many kinds of competition have side effects. Many big companies (Walmart comes to mind) have the capacity to distort the market they're in, change the rule of the market itself. Those external effects that goes beyond "simple" competition may be considered unfair. For example in France, Carrefour ( the french walmart ) used dumping for a few decades, destroying any competition, then slowly increased its prices. Logically, competition should emerge but Carrefour is so entrenched into the infrastructure of the market that a competitor cannot really survive. This is a simplification (the french market is more an oligopoly than a monopoly) but the overall scheme is true. Amazon may or may not have one of these effects. I don't (yet) know or more precisely I don't have enough info to have an opinion.
    • rhizome 13y ago
      Are you arguing against the existence of economic and commerce policies?
    • meepmorp 13y ago
      The French government isn't dictating how it's citizens spend their money. It's dictating how Amazon can sell things to its customers in France.
• nraynaud 13y ago
  I have a very good relevant citation (that ironically I can't copy/paste because it's a kindle book): "You find it at Disneyland, where people flock to stroll up and down a Main Street just like the ones they abandoned wholesale in the 1950s for shopping malls. It happens at restored colonial villages like Williamsburg, Virginia, or Mystic, Connecticut, where visitors pay good money to savour the sort of tranquil village atmosphere that they long ago fled for the happy sprawl of suburbs. You find it at Disneyland, where people flock to stroll up and down a Main Street just like the ones they abandoned wholesale in the 1950s for shopping malls. It happens at restored colonial villages like Williamsburg, Virginia, or Mystic, Connecticut, where visitors pay good money to savour the sort of tranquil village atmosphere that they long ago fled for the happy sprawl of suburbs." Bill Bryson, Notes from a big country. In France we are trying to manage those shops and this heritage. I don't say that we succeed (because now those shops are mostly franchises form mains brands, banks, assurances ans real estates, who price out independent shops), but at least we try something. We have a big problem: we know what we don't want but we have to invent what we want and the route there.
• dionidium 13y ago
  Wouldn't being able to afford more books because they are cheaper on Amazon make me effectively more affluent? I think the argument is that cheaper books might make you more affluent in the sense that you'll have more money, while at the same time promoting a competitive work culture in which it's not possible to use that money to buy time off. In the U.S. I can't trade my money for more vacation. My job is all or nothing. If what I value is time off then what good is money if I can't use it to purchase time off?
  • jordanthoms 13y ago
    Sure you can buy time off in the U.S, you just need to work that out with your employer rather than the Government determining the right amount of time off for everyone.
    • dionidium 13y ago
      You're right that I am free to do this in that it is not illegal, but you're pretty out of touch with most jobs in the U.S. if you think that means I actually can do this.