Eomund said:
Final-Fan said:
Fine: Flatlanders don't need to drink it, they just want to water their lawns. You have only criticized my analogy, not my argument; do you concede that I am right in that arena?
But thank you nonetheless for criticizing my analogy; I am much happier to have made such a good comparison of something I came up with on the fly.
People's insulting him is bad but does not make him any closer to being in the right; otherwise Bush would be the greatest leader on the planet.
HE IS A PARASITE ON THE MARKET EVEN IF INDIVIDUAL CUSTOMERS WILLINGLY DO BUSINESS WITH HIM. Just as a monopoly could charge whatever the hell they want for, let's say, deoderant. It's a luxury item -- you can be stinky or bathe more often or use some traditional remedy -- but that doesn't mean that the fact that tons of people would keep buying $50 deoderant sticks turns it into a legitimate business practice. Viability =/= legitimacy. |
Don't stray into the Political arena, that is not this topic (Though I understand what you meant). Your argument that Cdude is taking away a bucket of water from the people on one side of Flatlake to give to the people on the other side is still incorrect. Cdude did not go out of his way to buy a second Wii, he saw it and decided to invest in it for a profit. In your analogy he saw a small puddle next to the lake and and decided to take it. The other problem with your argument is now that the people of Flatland no longer need to drink the water, and they only use it for watering their lawn, people now must decide if they want to water their yard today. If they don't then they yard may get a little brown, but they must decide if they want to keep the yard green by watering it or letting it start to wither. Since the supply of the lake is now not meeting demand, people who want to keep their yards green will pay (more) for it. Some people like green yards what can we say? Anyways if he has a bucket of water and some people will already not have water for their yards today, shouldn't the bucket of water go to the highest bidder? I will agree that when you are dealing with a monopoly the rules change. However if there is room in the market for small businesses or entrepenuers then they will exist. Cdude is not however operating as a monopoly. He is acting as a holding service. @ TheBigFatJ: Being a nice person isn't really relevant to my point. He isn't creating some product, this is true, but how are any retail chain doing anything different from him, expect they are bound to rules saying they can't raise a price like he can. He IS however creating a service for people who would otherwise be inconvenienced by standing in line or hoping to find a Wii at his local Wal-Mart. The service is worth something. |
In my analogy, he takes a bucket away from one side of the lake to sell to the other for profit. In RL, he takes a Wii away from the store to sell on craigslist for profit. Your objection that he "did not go out of his way to buy a second Wii, he decided to invest in it for profit" is very stupid and frankly disappointing;
cdude has specifically stated that he bought the Wii with the sole intention of selling it at great profit and, moreover, intends to apply that revenue to doing it AGAIN with MORE WIIS. The Flatlake analogy is doing better than ever, thank you very much; with the Flatlake at low levels only people willing to walk to the new lake boundary (i.e. go to the store early) are going to get what they want; cdude's actions cause the people in the area he is taking water from to have to walk further (someone at that store was SOL and will have to keep searching). Again, cdude is depriving people in one place of a resource in order to sell it at profit in another place; he essentially takes a resource hostage and ransoms it to the highest bidder. He is therefore a PARASITE -- but his parasitism is an acceptable loss to any sensible capitalist, and all I ask is that he admits to his parasitic nature.
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