Author
Topic: How Cheap Things *Used* to be
(Read 3479 times)

betarhoalphadelta · « **Reply #168 on:** June 04, 2026, 04:34:53 PM »

Quote from: MikeDeTiger on June 04, 2026, 04:16:39 PM

There's at least a part of me that thinks the other side of that coin is innovation. Satellite radio may not be a good example (I don't know much about it, but it's the example you used, so I'm sticking with it), but regardless of price and customer satisfaction with price, how much innovation are we not getting due to lack of competition? We can never assert counterfactuals with perfect confidence, but competition is a reliable and tested driver of innovation. Regardless of price, would we have cooler satellite radio without SiriusXM?

What's more likely is that in a split market where you had two competitors for a limited demand product, they simply wouldn't have both been able to survive. So you can allow them to merge and be a monopoly, or they can battle it out for 5 years, one go bankrupt while the other absorbs their subscriber base, and then you have... A monopoly.

And remember, SiriusXM *does* have competitors. Their competitors are terrestrial radio, streaming, podcasting, audiobooks, MP3/CDs, etc. They need to innovate to try to entice customers to pay for something when many of their competitors are free services.

So it's not right to act like there isn't a competitive market...

betarhoalphadelta · « **Reply #169 on:** June 04, 2026, 04:36:43 PM »

Quote from: MikeDeTiger on June 04, 2026, 04:21:03 PM

Will do.

But when learning about something new, I kind of have to simplify first and get solid on core, possibly theoretical, concepts, before I can bring nuance and real-world messiness into it. Kinda like in econ 101 when they drill you with the supply and demand curves.....nobody, nowhere is governed by the overly simplistic picture they paint. But it's still a good idea to teach it to students starting out.

And yet, so many of the things that people try to overcomplicate can be adequately explained with a simple supply & demand curve.

OrangeAfroMan · « **Reply #170 on:** June 04, 2026, 07:47:22 PM »

Quote from: utee94 on June 04, 2026, 12:36:08 PM

When people stop paying the high prices, then the universities will stop increasing them. I dropped my season tickets 9 years ago because the cost was just too much for me and I had other priorities. But apparently there were plenty of people lined up behind me.

This is one, tiny reason the non-wealthy don't like the wealthy.
They always pay the high prices. A tiny percentage of the group makes it so the much larger percentage of the group do not have access.
And that can be frustrating.

OrangeAfroMan · « **Reply #171 on:** June 04, 2026, 07:58:24 PM »

Quote from: Cincydawg on June 04, 2026, 10:55:10 AM

Stock price is far from the only measure, but what metric should be used to indicate corporate greed?

Stuff like this.
You could have deemed it all predictable.
These companies are simply getting better at sharpening their swords.
They really take advantage of people's habits/being lazy.
.
I comically just wish they'd value stakeholders over shareholders. The funny things is they don't have to choose one or the other. But they have. They really have.

And for all of the ideas to knock billionaires down a peg.....they'd still be billionaires. Maybe more slowly, but they'd still be at the top of the mountain. That's the thing. None of them would actually feel it. They wouldn't have to deny themselves another car or house or yacht.

I mean damn.

Cincydawg · « **Reply #172 on:** June 04, 2026, 09:38:21 PM »

Folks often invest in a thing and become part owners hoping to earn money. If an investment doesn’t pay me a reasonable mount I don’t buy, or sell if I did.

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Topic: How Cheap Things Used to be

betarhoalphadelta

Re: How Cheap Things Used to be

betarhoalphadelta

Re: How Cheap Things Used to be

OrangeAfroMan

Re: How Cheap Things Used to be

OrangeAfroMan

Re: How Cheap Things Used to be

Cincydawg

Re: How Cheap Things Used to be