Re:It's not a crime if we do it with an app
by danny_codes on Sunday January 26, 2025 @12:04PM
(#42831587)
What. Are you advocating for monopolies? Obviously there is a point where people stop buying essentials. The point of capitalism is to deliver goods as cheaply as possible. If toothpaste costs $60 I would still buy it because I need toothpaste. But that extra money now goes to someone who isn’t producing, they are mooching. It’s a welfare check to a billionaire. In a monopoly pricing is fixed at maximum profit, which could make goods 10x or 100x for things with relatively inelastic demand.
Re:It's not a crime if we do it with an app
by ogleopoly on Sunday January 26, 2025 @03:59PM
(#42834048)
You're on a forum where people regularly do Patagonia-clad kabuki theatre to bored men in Palo Alto to get $10 million to build Uber for Dogs. Yes, half of these insipid comments are advocating for monopolies. That's where the money is. There's a reason America did this during the Gilded Age, and why we busted the everloving shit out of monopolies after.
Re:It's not a crime if we do it with an app
by galleywest200 on Sunday January 26, 2025 @12:35PM
(#42831881)
> If rents get too high, people move to a different city.
With what money? It takes three months rent up-front to move (first+last month rent and a deposit equal to one month rent) up front. People _need_ a place to live and will spend every last dollar to not be homeless.
Re:It's not a crime if we do it with an app
by gmueckl on Sunday January 26, 2025 @12:44PM
(#42831966)
The government won't make things cheaper. The point of the regulation would be to actively encumbered the monopolist company and either give strong incentives to split up or make room for nimble competitors.
The fallacy is assuming that the government will make everything cheap for consumers.
In practice, government regulation of prices just changes the game. Look at any market with rent control: There are numerous meta-games around building or not building new supply, landlords are incentivized to not fix units because they know tenants don’t want to give up their rent control and move, and a new market emerges where people illegally sublet their rent controlled apartments because it becomes attractive to take advantage of the market demand that landlords aren’t allowed to capitalize on.
The other fallacy in all of this is thinking that companies control both supply and demand. For nearly all commodities, there is a price where consumers won’t pay for it. If rents get too high, people move to a different city. If gas gets too expensive they start carpooling and looking for WFH jobs. If eggs are too expensive they eat something else. These choices make people angry as hell, but there’s no denying that these choices exist. Companies can’t push past these limits and force people to buy at any price. They still have to discover that point on the supply and demand curve.