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> The problem arises when the bad tech crowds the good tech out of the market altogether. That's not possible in normal market dynamics. When only shitty produ

by javert 11y ago

> The problem arises when the bad tech crowds the good tech out of the market altogether. That's not possible in normal market dynamics. When only shitty products are available, someone will start competing at the high end. The reason it doesn't, and won't, happen with smartphones is because the telcos have [government granted] legal monopolies. And they function as government bureaus. Look up what happened to the CEO of Quest. [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Nacchio

dragonwriter 11y ago
> That's not possible in normal market dynamics. It is quite possible in normal market dynamics. It is not possible in ideal market dynamics where both perfect competition and the rational choice model hold, but where people are not -- contrary to the rational choice model -- perfectly knowledge about the actual utilities that they will individually realize from different market alternatives before making transaction decisions, its quite possible for bad-but-well-marketed-to-create-the-illusion-of-quality products to crowd out actually better products.
- javert 11y ago
  You're attacking a straw man. If you pay attention to the world around you, you see that time after time, better products win out over worse ones. It's practically common sense. But you have your head in the clouds and your fingers in your ears. I'm not interested in arguing about this with you---take it or leave it, but this is all I have to say.
  - dragonwriter 11y ago
    > If you pay attention to the world around you, you see that time after time, better products win out over worse ones. Yes, lots of real, normal markets are reasonably well approximated by the rational choice model, even though its quite obvious that it is not literally accurate. That's one reason why its an important model. Lots of real, normal markets are not reasonably well approximated by the rational choice model, and the elements of the model that are obviously literally false, and the degree to which reality deviates from them in the particular market, are pretty good starting points for understanding why that is the case. "Normal markets" and "Econ 101 simplifications" aren't the same thing.
  - notduncansmith 11y ago
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax

by javert 11y ago

dragonwriter 11y ago

> That's not possible in normal market dynamics. It is quite possible in normal market dynamics. It is not possible in ideal market dynamics where both perfect competition and the rational choice model hold, but where people are not -- contrary to the rational choice model -- perfectly knowledge about the actual utilities that they will individually realize from different market alternatives before making transaction decisions, its quite possible for bad-but-well-marketed-to-create-the-illusion-of-quality products to crowd out actually better products.

javert 11y ago
You're attacking a straw man. If you pay attention to the world around you, you see that time after time, better products win out over worse ones. It's practically common sense. But you have your head in the clouds and your fingers in your ears. I'm not interested in arguing about this with you---take it or leave it, but this is all I have to say.
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  > If you pay attention to the world around you, you see that time after time, better products win out over worse ones. Yes, lots of real, normal markets are reasonably well approximated by the rational choice model, even though its quite obvious that it is not literally accurate. That's one reason why its an important model. Lots of real, normal markets are not reasonably well approximated by the rational choice model, and the elements of the model that are obviously literally false, and the degree to which reality deviates from them in the particular market, are pretty good starting points for understanding why that is the case. "Normal markets" and "Econ 101 simplifications" aren't the same thing.
- notduncansmith 11y ago
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betamax