Re:Is your Netflix queue destroying the environment?
by ars on Wednesday December 31, 2008 @08:54AM
(#415444)
Don't forget about profit. The company (i.e. shareholders) are making a larger profit from the marked up item. The money they earn will eventually be spent, and will have an environmental impact.
To your virtual items example:
What determines scarcity and cost? Or more accurately: what is the input into the product to create it?
There are two options here: the items is simply marked up for no reason (i.e. the server releases them rarely for no reason at all), and then the profit situation takes hold.
The other option is that the virtual items are priced correctly, so what makes them rare? (If they were not rare, and priced correctly, then their value is zero.) Usually what makes them rare is the human time spent on making/finding them. Which means that their cost is basically wages, and no different from a real item.
To your virtual items example:
What determines scarcity and cost? Or more accurately: what is the input into the product to create it?
There are two options here: the items is simply marked up for no reason (i.e. the server releases them rarely for no reason at all), and then the profit situation takes hold.
The other option is that the virtual items are priced correctly, so what makes them rare? (If they were not rare, and priced correctly, then their value is zero.) Usually what makes them rare is the human time spent on making/finding them. Which means that their cost is basically wages, and no different from a real item.