You shut your filthy mouth! Clamp that pie hole shut! Don't you know even breathing an idea that foul can make it come true?! Say things like that and tomorrow we could all wake up to find Stan Lee has signed over licenses to all the Marvel properties to Uwe... Oh God...
I'm sorry to interrupt your Ayn Rand fantasy that you are in control of your world, but the problem is that businesses shamelessly copy each others tactics, and occasionally outright collude. Let me make this clear -- you don't get to "vote with your wallet."
When companies first began drug-testing employees, a radically unpopular proposal, the public was assured this was only for "sensitive" positions like public safety workers. "You don't like it, work for somebody else," was the reply. "Public safety" was expanded to include truck drivers. Then waiters. Now, you cannot find legal employment in America without submitting to a drug test.
Searching customers at the door. This was first done at large "warehouse" stores where the store layout meant you could conceivably bypass the cash registers. "You don't like it, shop somewhere else." Now, my local Wal-Mart, Target, and grocery stores have begun to search. When every store does it, you can't "vote with your wallet."
Wal-Mart used to trumpet "Made in America." When China began selling goods in America, a huge number of people asked why we're doing business with those murderous thugs after Tienanmen Square. "You don't like it, buy from other manufacturers." As a story on Slashdot pointed out a couple days ago, there's no longer any way to boycott Chinese goods. They're so pervasive that even if you wanted to, even a conscientious person can no longer ensure that a large chunk of their business does not go to China.
Insurance companies used to swear "We would never come between you and your doctor. We wouldn't want to." Once deregulation came along, they all fell in lock-step, and now doctors have to call and ask some minimum wage clerk if they're allowed to treat their patients. It doesn't matter which insurance you carry.
Companies do not get to pull nearly as much crap in Europe and Japan as they do here, because in those two places government regulation almost works. I know because I've lived there. No one in America gets to "vote with their wallet" any more because there's no longer any meaningful competition. Through our own stupidity, we've not only returned to the "Bad Old Days" of 1890-1930, we've done them several steps better.
Fry's didn't do this to help you out. Their receipt showed a missing item in your cart. You were on your way to being charged with shoplifting, and they managed to discover their error before you got the chance to turn around and sue them.
Believe me, they're not searching your cart out of the goodness of their heart, and they weren't happy about having to cough up the fifty bucks they owed you.
State law requires ID to purchase alcohol. State Law requires ID to operate a motor vehicle. Since he was doing neither, all State Law requires, black letter law, by the way, is to tell them his name and address, which he did. The actual law is cited in the article. We are not yet required to submit papers to walk down the street in this country.
Tripping a cop who's chasing a suspect is "impeding." Refusing to yield the right of way to an ambulance is "impeding." Rubbernecking an accident is "impeding." Speaking only Japanese when English is your native language is "impeding."
Declining a request the officer doesn't have the legal right to make is not impeding. If it was, then the cop would get to make up his own little laws on the spot, and that's not correct. Note how the law goes out of its way to define that this has to be an "authorized act." The laws states you need to supply your name and address. He did. The Store had been given TWO different forms of ID for the man. His identity was never in question.
What we have is a store manager, and then a cop, getting WAY out of line, and the cop's offense is the worse one since it was committed under the color of authority. People who make stands over principle are called "patriots" here.
Principle. The store doesn't have the right to search, and it's good to smack someone's hand when they overreach. Keep your grimy paws off of my stuff.
Time. Mine's valuable. Ever see the line stack up at Sam's because they can't search fast enough?
BTW, I'm basically quoting, of all things, a decision by the Texas Supreme Court. Texas is one of the states the unequivocally says you can walk right by the guy at the door with a grin and a wave.
1. Simply entering private property does not give the owner the right to forcibly search you. e.g. You show up to a friend's barbecue. Silverware goes missing. Your friend can ask you to leave. Your friend cannot forcibly search you.
2. A place of business is private property, but you actually LOSE rights as a property owner when you open to the public for business. In my own home, I am allowed to be as racist, sexist and as homophobic as I choose to be. In my own restaurant open to the public, I'd better serve all customers equally.
3. Once the store accepts payment, everything in your bag, including the bag, becomes your property. Money has changed hands, the transaction has been completed. It's your stuff, just as much as your wallet and underwear.
4. The store is well aware of the transaction and the fact that this is now your property. Most store have exits within sight of the cash register, if not in fact FUNNELED through them. We can also prove from the records that the store knows this is now your property.
5. While the Fourth Amendment does not apply to the store, there is absolutely NO law that GIVES them the right to search. See point one. The Fourth Amendment limits the Authority of Government. The store has NO authority to begin with. Saying the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply so the Store can search is like saying traffic cops can't pull over every pretty blonde they see, but since I'm a private citizen I can.
6. While stores do have the right to detain shoplifters, the store had better be ready to supply a videotape or a witness who will testify to the theft.
7. When testifying under oath, the stores admitted some wonderfully interesting points. One, the searches at the door caught virtually no shoplifters, and two, the searches at the door NEVER "helped the customer" by making sure they actually received all the items they paid for. Even if the searches did find "forgotten items" the cashier should have placed in the customer's cart, you can't force someone to accept your help. The stores were forced to admit the searches at the door were for "deterrence," in other words, security theater. Don't shoplift because we're searching you at the door.
Oddly enough, for once in its existence, the Texas Supreme Court made the right call on this one. In the State of Texas, stores cannot detain you at the door for as search. In addition, since you cannot sign away your legal rights in a contract -- you cannot sell yourself into slavery, an employment agreement where you agree you work for less than minimum wage is void -- not even Sam's and Costco can force this as part of the "membership."
The only reason door searches exist in Texas is that people voluntarily put up with them.
Nah, we'll just disable their NIC cards and tell 'em we turned the internet off. Anyone who says the tubes are still working obviously hates America....
Seriously, find a better class of people to work with. If the head of the community college where you teach thinks this schmuck is a fine example of what they want their students to become, then you need to find a better place to work.
Son, there's a reason why we separate the Police and the Military. There's a reason why we separate the FBI and the CIA. There's a reason why, traditionally, the US Military has been forbidden to carry out operations inside US borders.
Law Enforcement is meant to keep the peace, to preserve Justice within our Society. Look at the sculpture around our court houses. A police officer is supposed to uphold Justice by enforcing the Law. This means Police Officers should believe, under our finest traditions, that "better a thousand guilty go free than to imprison one innocent man."
Soldiers are not concerned primarily with Justice. Soldiers, while they do have "rules of engagement" and the desire to avoid civilian casualties, exist to Kill the Enemy.
I once had a grizzled old retired Texas sheriff tell me with pride that while he had "smacked the fear of God" into many men, he'd never once had to kill. He was proud of that. "Every time I touched my weapon, I knew eventually I'd have to look his Mama in the eye..."
That is an excellent cop. Cops should err on the side of caution.
Soldiers shouldn't. The job of a soldier is to make sure every one of his buddies goes home, and if that means blowing the rubble higher, so be it. Soldiers shouldn't be happy until the enemy is three times dead before the engagement starts.
Once you allow soldiers to begin operating domestically, even for the best of reasons, you have opened the door to an eventual coup. Good cops should look at a crowd and see fellow citizens. Good soldiers should look at a crowd and see a target-rich environment. The only way the Constitution can survive is to never mix the two.
By the way, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Eisenhower happen to agree with me on all of this. The Founding Fathers didn't even want a standing army, calling it incompatible with Liberty, and the last thing the man who defeated the Third Reich said to us as he entered retirement was that Washington's nightmare was coming true.
BTW, as far my phone call to Bin Laden -- I'm a US Citizen. That means my phone calls are my own damn business until a judge says they aren't. Before the judge says they aren't, Law Enforcement better have some damn good reason to think I'm doing anything other than calling Bin Laden to ask if he has Prince Albert in a can. You wanna tap the Sultan of Brunei's phone calls? Go get 'em, boys. You wanna tap the calls of a US Citizen without a warrant? Seems to me you just became the enemy of the Constitution that my family has sworn to protect.
Of course, let talk about the real problem here. You're afraid some bad man is going to come along and mess with you, and you want someone to protect you.
Yes, there are real bad men in the world. Yes, I have seen the Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg and Dua Khalil Aswad videos. I think all adults in the Western World should. It puts things in context. We really are dealing with mindless savages. Yes, more than 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001. I saw the second tower fall on CNN, and my brother-in-law saw them fall in person from a good distance. Yes, there are men who have committed their lives to destroying my country, and when they chant "Death to America," I believe the mean it literally and I take it personally.
But I also know that 46,000 died at Gettyburg alone, and our Constitution survived. Pearl Harbor took 2,300 lives and damn near our entire Pacific Navy, and the Bill of Rights survived. Hell, the Third Reich, the Japanese Imperial Navy, the Soviet Union -- these were enemies worthy of the bullet. You can feel proud fighting someone who can field a Panzer tank, a Mitsubishi Zero or a Mig.
Who are we fighting now? Oh, yeah, men so callow they can't handle backtalk from the women, men so clumsy they can't figure out a kitchen knife won't cut through bone in the Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg videos, men who are so afraid of women they have to gang up on a young girl to bash her head in with a block in the Khalil video, men whose tactical g
You're right. A million for violating My Beloved Bill of Rights is ridiculous. I think a more reasonable figure would be the entire gross worth of both the Bush and Cheney families, as well as all assets and accounts receivable of AT&T. I might consider accepting such a paltry sum if it came with tearful, prostrate apologies from all concerned.
Since we're on the topic of dead Americans, I come from a military family. My kin and I have served, sacrificed, bled and died for the rights and freedoms we have in this county, and we did it before the damn GI Bill came into being. When someone dares to even touch those rights, we don't think we should be given money. We think those responsible should be made to face us in combat.
How much are our rights really worth? So far, for my family, two Worlds Wars, Three Police Actions and still counting...
No, kid, most of YOUR life is boring. Had you made different choices in life, braver choices, and refused to play it safe and bland at every turn, you might have the memories and regrets that will sustain you through old age.
Of course, it's still not too late. Guys like you typically have their midlife crisis in 3... 2... 1...
Oh, BTW, if you had read the Shakespeare, you might have gained the insight you so sorely lack.
No, you're not a former Math teacher. You're still a Math teacher, only now you're a math teacher with integrity. That's a former school. You're still a Keeper of the Flame of Knowledge. That building used to be a place where Knowledge was passed on.
Now, like me, you're probably making the money you should have made as a teacher doing something else. And, yes, our world is poorer for it.
Yeah, I thought that too, until I realized that meant all commercial activity (ebay, bill pay, amazon) gets shunted to scavenger class. Somehow, I don't think "the money" is going to go along with this....
Businesses love to trot this argument out -- Fraud raises prices -- but unfortunately, it's just not true. Say it with me -- Prices are already as high as they can be, and the cost of materials doesn't enter into it. Prices reflect demand, not costs.
Most people assume, and it used to be this way when the catholic Church ruled Europe, that prices are set by adding material cost, plus labor, plus reasonable profit. For instance, I sell chairs. I paid 10 bucks for the wood, I had to pay the carpenter 10 bucks to cut and assemble the wood, and I want to make 10 bucks profit so I'll sell the chair for 30 dollars.
This is not the way prices are set. Chairs are priced at What the Market Will Bear. I ask as much as I can get away with for my chairs, and I can even plot a curve between price and sales. There's a point on that curve where I maximize my profit, and that's where prices are set.
What, you think I'm only going to ask $30 when the market would pay $100 just because I'm such a great guy? No business ever, anywhere, at any time, has ever really "passed the savings on to you." Sorry, Crazy Eddie at the Furniture Store is lying to you on late night TV.
My costs don't enter into it. If the price of wood is higher than the market will bear, I don't raise the price of my chairs -- I stop making chairs.
Now, there is one case where increased costs do result in increased prices, and this is when true scarcity enters the picture, because scarcity alters the supply/demand ratio. Crop failure results in increased prices for lettuce because supply falls below demand and thus prices rise.
But costs that aren't tied to scarcity, don't alter the price. This is why when Sams began frisking you on the way out, prices didn't fall, and why when banks began requiring fingerprints to cash checks, fees didn't fall.
Businesses aren't going to leave money on the table. Prices are already as high as they can get away with.
Hate to break this to you, but technology met the basic needs of all living people with the invention of the iron plow. We've been able to feed, cloth and shelter the whole planet since basically Rome.
We just think we have better things to do. So when the universal assembler/replicator finally shows up, don't look to hard for Paradise to descend on Earth. We've been putting jackposts under it for a while now...
Oh that. It's called "Teacher Effect," and I've been doing it for years. I can't tell you the number of times students have proclaimed routers, switches, servers, etc. to be irretrievably broken, only to have them mysteriously spring to life when I walk over for a look. It's because the machines are afraid to screw with someone who'll type "erase start, reload" without batting an eye...
The post above is correct. Banks did come up with the term, and their lobbyists had it put into law that banks had to be brick, not wood. Since most of the large, established banks of the time already were brick, this meant their competitors couldn't just rent land and throw up a cheap, wooden building, but had to be willing to cough up the significant extra expense for bricks and masons.
It's the traditional Economics 101 example of businesses protecting themselves by raising barriers to entry into the market.
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You shut your filthy mouth! Clamp that pie hole shut! Don't you know even breathing an idea that foul can make it come true?! Say things like that and tomorrow we could all wake up to find Stan Lee has signed over licenses to all the Marvel properties to Uwe ... Oh God ...
I'm sorry to interrupt your Ayn Rand fantasy that you are in control of your world, but the problem is that businesses shamelessly copy each others tactics, and occasionally outright collude. Let me make this clear -- you don't get to "vote with your wallet."
When companies first began drug-testing employees, a radically unpopular proposal, the public was assured this was only for "sensitive" positions like public safety workers. "You don't like it, work for somebody else," was the reply. "Public safety" was expanded to include truck drivers. Then waiters. Now, you cannot find legal employment in America without submitting to a drug test.
Searching customers at the door. This was first done at large "warehouse" stores where the store layout meant you could conceivably bypass the cash registers. "You don't like it, shop somewhere else." Now, my local Wal-Mart, Target, and grocery stores have begun to search. When every store does it, you can't "vote with your wallet."
Wal-Mart used to trumpet "Made in America." When China began selling goods in America, a huge number of people asked why we're doing business with those murderous thugs after Tienanmen Square. "You don't like it, buy from other manufacturers." As a story on Slashdot pointed out a couple days ago, there's no longer any way to boycott Chinese goods. They're so pervasive that even if you wanted to, even a conscientious person can no longer ensure that a large chunk of their business does not go to China.
Insurance companies used to swear "We would never come between you and your doctor. We wouldn't want to." Once deregulation came along, they all fell in lock-step, and now doctors have to call and ask some minimum wage clerk if they're allowed to treat their patients. It doesn't matter which insurance you carry.
Companies do not get to pull nearly as much crap in Europe and Japan as they do here, because in those two places government regulation almost works. I know because I've lived there. No one in America gets to "vote with their wallet" any more because there's no longer any meaningful competition. Through our own stupidity, we've not only returned to the "Bad Old Days" of 1890-1930, we've done them several steps better.
Fry's didn't do this to help you out. Their receipt showed a missing item in your cart. You were on your way to being charged with shoplifting, and they managed to discover their error before you got the chance to turn around and sue them.
Believe me, they're not searching your cart out of the goodness of their heart, and they weren't happy about having to cough up the fifty bucks they owed you.
State law requires ID to purchase alcohol. State Law requires ID to operate a motor vehicle. Since he was doing neither, all State Law requires, black letter law, by the way, is to tell them his name and address, which he did. The actual law is cited in the article. We are not yet required to submit papers to walk down the street in this country.
Tripping a cop who's chasing a suspect is "impeding." Refusing to yield the right of way to an ambulance is "impeding." Rubbernecking an accident is "impeding." Speaking only Japanese when English is your native language is "impeding."
Declining a request the officer doesn't have the legal right to make is not impeding. If it was, then the cop would get to make up his own little laws on the spot, and that's not correct. Note how the law goes out of its way to define that this has to be an "authorized act." The laws states you need to supply your name and address. He did. The Store had been given TWO different forms of ID for the man. His identity was never in question.
What we have is a store manager, and then a cop, getting WAY out of line, and the cop's offense is the worse one since it was committed under the color of authority. People who make stands over principle are called "patriots" here.
Principle. The store doesn't have the right to search, and it's good to smack someone's hand when they overreach. Keep your grimy paws off of my stuff.
Time. Mine's valuable. Ever see the line stack up at Sam's because they can't search fast enough?
Here's why:
BTW, I'm basically quoting, of all things, a decision by the Texas Supreme Court. Texas is one of the states the unequivocally says you can walk right by the guy at the door with a grin and a wave.
1. Simply entering private property does not give the owner the right to forcibly search you. e.g. You show up to a friend's barbecue. Silverware goes missing. Your friend can ask you to leave. Your friend cannot forcibly search you.
2. A place of business is private property, but you actually LOSE rights as a property owner when you open to the public for business. In my own home, I am allowed to be as racist, sexist and as homophobic as I choose to be. In my own restaurant open to the public, I'd better serve all customers equally.
3. Once the store accepts payment, everything in your bag, including the bag, becomes your property. Money has changed hands, the transaction has been completed. It's your stuff, just as much as your wallet and underwear.
4. The store is well aware of the transaction and the fact that this is now your property. Most store have exits within sight of the cash register, if not in fact FUNNELED through them. We can also prove from the records that the store knows this is now your property.
5. While the Fourth Amendment does not apply to the store, there is absolutely NO law that GIVES them the right to search. See point one. The Fourth Amendment limits the Authority of Government. The store has NO authority to begin with. Saying the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply so the Store can search is like saying traffic cops can't pull over every pretty blonde they see, but since I'm a private citizen I can.
6. While stores do have the right to detain shoplifters, the store had better be ready to supply a videotape or a witness who will testify to the theft.
7. When testifying under oath, the stores admitted some wonderfully interesting points. One, the searches at the door caught virtually no shoplifters, and two, the searches at the door NEVER "helped the customer" by making sure they actually received all the items they paid for. Even if the searches did find "forgotten items" the cashier should have placed in the customer's cart, you can't force someone to accept your help. The stores were forced to admit the searches at the door were for "deterrence," in other words, security theater. Don't shoplift because we're searching you at the door.
Oddly enough, for once in its existence, the Texas Supreme Court made the right call on this one. In the State of Texas, stores cannot detain you at the door for as search. In addition, since you cannot sign away your legal rights in a contract -- you cannot sell yourself into slavery, an employment agreement where you agree you work for less than minimum wage is void -- not even Sam's and Costco can force this as part of the "membership."
The only reason door searches exist in Texas is that people voluntarily put up with them.
Eventually, it will be. The first step is to get the telcos to roll over on the people who gave the order.
Nah, we'll just disable their NIC cards and tell 'em we turned the internet off. Anyone who says the tubes are still working obviously hates America....
Seriously, find a better class of people to work with. If the head of the community college where you teach thinks this schmuck is a fine example of what they want their students to become, then you need to find a better place to work.
Son, there's a reason why we separate the Police and the Military. There's a reason why we separate the FBI and the CIA. There's a reason why, traditionally, the US Military has been forbidden to carry out operations inside US borders.
Law Enforcement is meant to keep the peace, to preserve Justice within our Society. Look at the sculpture around our court houses. A police officer is supposed to uphold Justice by enforcing the Law. This means Police Officers should believe, under our finest traditions, that "better a thousand guilty go free than to imprison one innocent man."
Soldiers are not concerned primarily with Justice. Soldiers, while they do have "rules of engagement" and the desire to avoid civilian casualties, exist to Kill the Enemy.
I once had a grizzled old retired Texas sheriff tell me with pride that while he had "smacked the fear of God" into many men, he'd never once had to kill. He was proud of that. "Every time I touched my weapon, I knew eventually I'd have to look his Mama in the eye..."
That is an excellent cop. Cops should err on the side of caution.
Soldiers shouldn't. The job of a soldier is to make sure every one of his buddies goes home, and if that means blowing the rubble higher, so be it. Soldiers shouldn't be happy until the enemy is three times dead before the engagement starts.
Once you allow soldiers to begin operating domestically, even for the best of reasons, you have opened the door to an eventual coup. Good cops should look at a crowd and see fellow citizens. Good soldiers should look at a crowd and see a target-rich environment. The only way the Constitution can survive is to never mix the two.
By the way, Washington, Jefferson, Franklin and Eisenhower happen to agree with me on all of this. The Founding Fathers didn't even want a standing army, calling it incompatible with Liberty, and the last thing the man who defeated the Third Reich said to us as he entered retirement was that Washington's nightmare was coming true.
BTW, as far my phone call to Bin Laden -- I'm a US Citizen. That means my phone calls are my own damn business until a judge says they aren't. Before the judge says they aren't, Law Enforcement better have some damn good reason to think I'm doing anything other than calling Bin Laden to ask if he has Prince Albert in a can. You wanna tap the Sultan of Brunei's phone calls? Go get 'em, boys. You wanna tap the calls of a US Citizen without a warrant? Seems to me you just became the enemy of the Constitution that my family has sworn to protect.
Of course, let talk about the real problem here. You're afraid some bad man is going to come along and mess with you, and you want someone to protect you.
Yes, there are real bad men in the world. Yes, I have seen the Daniel Pearl, Nick Berg and Dua Khalil Aswad videos. I think all adults in the Western World should. It puts things in context. We really are dealing with mindless savages. Yes, more than 3,000 people died on September 11, 2001. I saw the second tower fall on CNN, and my brother-in-law saw them fall in person from a good distance. Yes, there are men who have committed their lives to destroying my country, and when they chant "Death to America," I believe the mean it literally and I take it personally.
But I also know that 46,000 died at Gettyburg alone, and our Constitution survived. Pearl Harbor took 2,300 lives and damn near our entire Pacific Navy, and the Bill of Rights survived. Hell, the Third Reich, the Japanese Imperial Navy, the Soviet Union -- these were enemies worthy of the bullet. You can feel proud fighting someone who can field a Panzer tank, a Mitsubishi Zero or a Mig.
Who are we fighting now? Oh, yeah, men so callow they can't handle backtalk from the women, men so clumsy they can't figure out a kitchen knife won't cut through bone in the Daniel Pearl and Nick Berg videos, men who are so afraid of women they have to gang up on a young girl to bash her head in with a block in the Khalil video, men whose tactical g
You're right. A million for violating My Beloved Bill of Rights is ridiculous. I think a more reasonable figure would be the entire gross worth of both the Bush and Cheney families, as well as all assets and accounts receivable of AT&T. I might consider accepting such a paltry sum if it came with tearful, prostrate apologies from all concerned.
Since we're on the topic of dead Americans, I come from a military family. My kin and I have served, sacrificed, bled and died for the rights and freedoms we have in this county, and we did it before the damn GI Bill came into being. When someone dares to even touch those rights, we don't think we should be given money. We think those responsible should be made to face us in combat.
How much are our rights really worth? So far, for my family, two Worlds Wars, Three Police Actions and still counting...
How else do you think you get the orginal Man-Sized Giant Oat into a million little itty bitty oats?
Mandak,
You, and I say this with utmost awe and respect, are one scary bastard. Please, for the sake of the rest of us, never go to law school.
No, kid, most of YOUR life is boring. Had you made different choices in life, braver choices, and refused to play it safe and bland at every turn, you might have the memories and regrets that will sustain you through old age.
Of course, it's still not too late. Guys like you typically have their midlife crisis in 3... 2... 1...
Oh, BTW, if you had read the Shakespeare, you might have gained the insight you so sorely lack.
No, you're not a former Math teacher. You're still a Math teacher, only now you're a math teacher with integrity. That's a former school. You're still a Keeper of the Flame of Knowledge. That building used to be a place where Knowledge was passed on. Now, like me, you're probably making the money you should have made as a teacher doing something else. And, yes, our world is poorer for it.
You do realize that the entire PC industry came about because someone reverse engineered BIOS, right?
Amen.
Yeah, I thought that too, until I realized that meant all commercial activity (ebay, bill pay, amazon) gets shunted to scavenger class. Somehow, I don't think "the money" is going to go along with this....
Businesses love to trot this argument out -- Fraud raises prices -- but unfortunately, it's just not true. Say it with me -- Prices are already as high as they can be, and the cost of materials doesn't enter into it. Prices reflect demand, not costs.
Most people assume, and it used to be this way when the catholic Church ruled Europe, that prices are set by adding material cost, plus labor, plus reasonable profit. For instance, I sell chairs. I paid 10 bucks for the wood, I had to pay the carpenter 10 bucks to cut and assemble the wood, and I want to make 10 bucks profit so I'll sell the chair for 30 dollars.
This is not the way prices are set. Chairs are priced at What the Market Will Bear. I ask as much as I can get away with for my chairs, and I can even plot a curve between price and sales. There's a point on that curve where I maximize my profit, and that's where prices are set.
What, you think I'm only going to ask $30 when the market would pay $100 just because I'm such a great guy? No business ever, anywhere, at any time, has ever really "passed the savings on to you." Sorry, Crazy Eddie at the Furniture Store is lying to you on late night TV.
My costs don't enter into it. If the price of wood is higher than the market will bear, I don't raise the price of my chairs -- I stop making chairs.
Now, there is one case where increased costs do result in increased prices, and this is when true scarcity enters the picture, because scarcity alters the supply/demand ratio. Crop failure results in increased prices for lettuce because supply falls below demand and thus prices rise.
But costs that aren't tied to scarcity, don't alter the price. This is why when Sams began frisking you on the way out, prices didn't fall, and why when banks began requiring fingerprints to cash checks, fees didn't fall.
Businesses aren't going to leave money on the table. Prices are already as high as they can get away with.
Hate to break this to you, but technology met the basic needs of all living people with the invention of the iron plow. We've been able to feed, cloth and shelter the whole planet since basically Rome.
We just think we have better things to do. So when the universal assembler/replicator finally shows up, don't look to hard for Paradise to descend on Earth. We've been putting jackposts under it for a while now...
"Speaker for the Dead," the sequel to "Ender's Game"
Oh that. It's called "Teacher Effect," and I've been doing it for years. I can't tell you the number of times students have proclaimed routers, switches, servers, etc. to be irretrievably broken, only to have them mysteriously spring to life when I walk over for a look. It's because the machines are afraid to screw with someone who'll type "erase start, reload" without batting an eye...
"(although it may get better after some of our competition goes under)."
"And you know the surest way to go broke? Keep getting an increasing share of a shrinking market."
--Larry the Liquidator, "Other People's Money"
It's the traditional Economics 101 example of businesses protecting themselves by raising barriers to entry into the market.