9 ms·

For what its worth, pretty much every world market out there is dominated by vendors that make bad products and rarely care. Usually just a few, even.

pessimizer 13y ago
Not the healthy ones. Healthy ones have a wide variety of choices, and the competition nipping at your heels keeps user-hating features out of the product. Right now the two smartphone operating systems are being made by two companies who are in court for colluding on hiring. That's the worst possible market, and as you would expect, it produces trash. One thing I'm looking forward to with my future dumbphones are how disposable they are if they turn out to be horrible.
- nknighthb 13y ago
  Would you please name some of these "healthy" markets?
  - mhb 13y ago
    Orthodontia, laser eye surgery, boxed chocolates.
    - nknighthb 13y ago
      "Shopping around" among dentists is virtually impossible. I can have only the most superficial and largely useless opinion of a dentist until I actually allow them in my mouth, at which point the deal is done. This is not a "healthy market" comparable to anything we're talking about here. Ditto laser eye surgery and pretty much anything else remotely medical in nature. Chocolate is not a healthy market either: http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/01/why-so-little-candy-variety-blame-the-chocolate-oligopoly/ http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/01/why-so-little-candy-variety...
      - mhb 13y ago
        Orthodontists - not dentists. Boxed chocolate - not candy bars. Orthodontia and laser eye surgery are examples of the types of healthy markets that flourish in the absence of over-regulation. You also seem to be conflating the health of markets and some idiosyncratic issues of your own regarding discovering competent suppliers.
        nknighthb 13y ago
        > Orthodontists - not dentists. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/orthodontist http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/orthodontist or·tho·don·tics a branch of dentistry that deals with helping teeth to grow straight If we're not even going to argue about the same thing, I'm done here.
  - pessimizer 13y ago
    Screwdrivers, silverware, coffeemakers... (can you tell I'm looking around the room?) Whenever there are no individual participants large enough or enough participants colluding to cause regulatory capture. The US isn't interested in healthy markets anymore.
- dllthomas 13y ago
  "That's the worst possible market" Second worst.

pessimizer 13y ago

Not the healthy ones. Healthy ones have a wide variety of choices, and the competition nipping at your heels keeps user-hating features out of the product. Right now the two smartphone operating systems are being made by two companies who are in court for colluding on hiring. That's the worst possible market, and as you would expect, it produces trash. One thing I'm looking forward to with my future dumbphones are how disposable they are if they turn out to be horrible.

nknighthb 13y ago
Would you please name some of these "healthy" markets?
- mhb 13y ago
  Orthodontia, laser eye surgery, boxed chocolates.
  - nknighthb 13y ago
    "Shopping around" among dentists is virtually impossible. I can have only the most superficial and largely useless opinion of a dentist until I actually allow them in my mouth, at which point the deal is done. This is not a "healthy market" comparable to anything we're talking about here. Ditto laser eye surgery and pretty much anything else remotely medical in nature. Chocolate is not a healthy market either: http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/01/why-so-little-candy-variety-blame-the-chocolate-oligopoly/ http://ideas.time.com/2013/11/01/why-so-little-candy-variety...
    - mhb 13y ago
      Orthodontists - not dentists. Boxed chocolate - not candy bars. Orthodontia and laser eye surgery are examples of the types of healthy markets that flourish in the absence of over-regulation. You also seem to be conflating the health of markets and some idiosyncratic issues of your own regarding discovering competent suppliers.
      - nknighthb 13y ago
        > Orthodontists - not dentists. http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/orthodontist http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/orthodontist or·tho·don·tics a branch of dentistry that deals with helping teeth to grow straight If we're not even going to argue about the same thing, I'm done here.
- pessimizer 13y ago
  Screwdrivers, silverware, coffeemakers... (can you tell I'm looking around the room?) Whenever there are no individual participants large enough or enough participants colluding to cause regulatory capture. The US isn't interested in healthy markets anymore.
dllthomas 13y ago
"That's the worst possible market" Second worst.