Oddbean new post about login | logout If you price things according to the wealth of the receiver, then you: have to know how wealthy they are have to assume that people poorer than you are doing the same won't be able to determine a market price
Some of you think like communists. Economics of envy. nostr:note1cu46cxgky7c44fej4jsglkpymumk05spp5nkaufyh2qjteceg0zsjd4pue
Could have said I won't zap because I'm poor and can't afford it. Is that the case, I don't know...
I heard someone else refer to Communism as "economics of envy" also... Is that a fameous quote, or just sort of a common saying?
Margaret Thatcher, I believe
I am not a communist but that doesn't sound right. Why envy?
You begrudge people their wealth and see it as a reason to treat them worse.
I am still confused. I can't relate communism with envy. Communists tend to be very authoritarian. Envy for me, goes hand in hand with capitalism and competition mentality.
Ma'am, you may like to read: https://www.systemsofexchange.org/post/the-quakers-and-the-origin-of-fixed-prices Fixed prices for buyers are a very doctrinaire Classical Liberal thing. Marxist-Leninists Communists were for fixed prices, nearly as much as Classical Liberals. If you feel, as I do, that discriminatory pricing is an abuse of market power (even if for non-market ends), then we are in the minority, and many of our fellow-travellers really are Communists.
Communists didn't allow for price-discovery, tho. They centralized price-setting. Obviously, I am a classical liberal.
Quite. Nonetheless, they are among our allies on this specific issue (pricing equality for buyers), while "capitalist" FAANG corporations, our nemeses. Hilarious really
I'm used to that, though. Most people I know lean left and I agree with them regularly, on economic issues.
Most people I know lean left, and I disagree with them regularly, on economic issues (among others). You must associate with a better grade of Leftist :-D
That is how most business-to-business commerce is conducted in Australia. Partially replace "wealthy" with "apparently well-connected" in whatever industry. A price is quite readily derived in such a market, regardless, but its a function with one subjective input rather than a single number.
That is the other way around, tho. That is the price you demand a business pay, not the price you pay for a service.
Works in both directions, here.
2 people sell identical sandwiches. You pay the poorer $5 and tell the wealthier that you want it for free because they can afford it.
That'd be nice. Here it works differently. The big fish gets the service at cost, because if he bad-mouths you you won't have a business. The n00b or foreigner (or woman/man, in some industries) pays literally 10x. I've done some work in mystery shopping, and its hilarious how different quotes can be depending on gender, age and accent.
It wouldn't be nice because if the wealthier person went along with it, they'd eventually lose interest in making sandwiches.
They'd lose interest in making sandwiches for poor people, absolutely. This actually happens, of course. Usually caused by government regulations, but social pressure alone has an effect in the same direction.
This is one reason why poor people often have trouble acquiring goods and services.
It ought to work the same way at the other end of the scale, too. People ought to be reluctant to do business with those more powerful who can screw them over without consequences. They don't seem to be IRL though. Especially construction subcontractors. They just bitch to me about it, and then go out and get ripped off again...
Yes, odd, isn't it? People are often irrational economic actors.
Very true. Culture plays a role. I've met a lot of small/medium businesspeople here who unironically brag about how much they're being overcharged, especially if its by a household name. They only keep quiet about how much they are also writing off as bad debts. Cringe AND stupid, but it appears to be stable for now...
It’s called price differentiation. You don’t have to know directly how wealthy someone is, a lot of people will signal this themselves, if you offer the right product variants. e.g. Premium version that only offers marginal advantages over the Standard version. As long as it stays at that level, it’s actually beneficial to the economy as it drives higher profitability and hence a more optimal distribution of goods and services. It becomes a problem, of course, if the wealthy are no longer even given the option to opt for the standard product, e.g. imagine forcing the wealthy to take business class (which offers much more value than economy class but arguably not nearly as much as the relative price difference)
I recently had someone complain that I use public transportation because the buses are full and I can afford a car.
hahaha wow that sums up the economic sentiment in Germany(?) pretty well