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You are living in a dream world. Give me access to Visa / US banking infrastructure and I'm 100% certain I can find ways to bring down costs by at least 99% an

You are living in a dream world. Give me access to Visa / US banking infrastructure and I'm 100% certain I can find ways to bring down costs by at least 99% and probably at the same time make it more secure and consumer friendly. Take the laissez–faire attitude in government, with a sprinkling of corruption at the highest levels of the financial industry, and you get merchant costs that you have in the US. Wow, what a claim, right? Let me ask you this. In what industry in the history of the world's economies can prices (such as those that banks / credit cards charge merchants) remain so stable in a truly competitive environment? Let me help you. The answer is NONE.

Dwolb 11y ago
The point I was attempting to make was VISA does provide value. This value is estimated as the price clients pay plus the estimated benefit clients receive. This previous post also mentioned that you would be able to provide the same value VISA does given the same market opportunity (albeit at a lower price). Therefore I believe we are in agreement. I was not diving into VISA's market power, their ability to price their services, nor other politics.
- datashovel 11y ago
  I guess based on those definitions wouldn't you need to subtract value based on the differential between services provided vs cost of said services if in fact they are being offered at unreasonable price? Perhaps not on micro-scale, but on macro-scale it's certainly arguable that over priced goods extract value from an economy unnecessarily. In a way perhaps this sort of tactic can have negative overall effect on economy, and thus create negative value. Otherwise it would seem the word "value" has no real meaning.
  - Dwolb 11y ago
    It would have to be true that the price VISA is able to charge is in excess of the total customer benefit. But then no one would buy VISA's services because it is not worth the money they would have to pay. If this were a drawing, total value would be a summation of cost to provide the aervice (C), price to the customer (P) and benefit to the customer (B). Value captured by VISA is P-C and value captured by customer is B-P.
    - datashovel 11y ago
      Your response tells me you're somehow missing the point. Sort of reminds me of a funny joke I heard a long time ago. I don't know original source, but I found this joke, in many similar iterations, across many forums online: -------------------- A farmer asks an engineer, a physicist and a mathematician to build the most efficient fence around his flock of sheep. The engineer builds a square fence around the sheep and says "That's the best I can do". The physicist builds a circular fence, then says "That's the best I can do". The mathematician smirks and takes a meter-long length of fence, wraps it around himself and declares triumphantly "I define myself to be outside!"

Dwolb 11y ago

The point I was attempting to make was VISA does provide value. This value is estimated as the price clients pay plus the estimated benefit clients receive. This previous post also mentioned that you would be able to provide the same value VISA does given the same market opportunity (albeit at a lower price). Therefore I believe we are in agreement. I was not diving into VISA's market power, their ability to price their services, nor other politics.

datashovel 11y ago
I guess based on those definitions wouldn't you need to subtract value based on the differential between services provided vs cost of said services if in fact they are being offered at unreasonable price? Perhaps not on micro-scale, but on macro-scale it's certainly arguable that over priced goods extract value from an economy unnecessarily. In a way perhaps this sort of tactic can have negative overall effect on economy, and thus create negative value. Otherwise it would seem the word "value" has no real meaning.
- Dwolb 11y ago
  It would have to be true that the price VISA is able to charge is in excess of the total customer benefit. But then no one would buy VISA's services because it is not worth the money they would have to pay. If this were a drawing, total value would be a summation of cost to provide the aervice (C), price to the customer (P) and benefit to the customer (B). Value captured by VISA is P-C and value captured by customer is B-P.
  - datashovel 11y ago
    Your response tells me you're somehow missing the point. Sort of reminds me of a funny joke I heard a long time ago. I don't know original source, but I found this joke, in many similar iterations, across many forums online: -------------------- A farmer asks an engineer, a physicist and a mathematician to build the most efficient fence around his flock of sheep. The engineer builds a square fence around the sheep and says "That's the best I can do". The physicist builds a circular fence, then says "That's the best I can do". The mathematician smirks and takes a meter-long length of fence, wraps it around himself and declares triumphantly "I define myself to be outside!"