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How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
121–130 of 317 posts
Re: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
#122It's articles like this that make me wonder how much of our middle class burden comes from hidden rent seeking parasites like this. I honestly don't know. I'm not trying to imply any particular thing. I honestly wonder. These sorts of things can stack up through the layers of companies that make things. And where does this money go? What does it end up doing?
Rent seeking is a large part of the pharmaceutical industry, which is 4% of the economy. And also a good chunk of the rest of the health care industry, which is 18% of the economy.
Re: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
#123Earlier quoted context omitted.
A 1000 sq ft home costs nowhere near $200,000 to build. The land, on the other hand, costs more than that alone in major cities.
> The land, on the other hand, costs more than that alone in major cities. You can build apartment buildings 5, 10, 20 or even 80 floors high. The cost of land per apartment can be made quite small by building higher.
But a 30-story apartment building will block my view of the river!
Re: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
#124Earlier quoted context omitted.
A 1000 sq ft home costs nowhere near $200,000 to build. The land, on the other hand, costs more than that alone in major cities.
> The land, on the other hand, costs more than that alone in major cities. You can build apartment buildings 5, 10, 20 or even 80 floors high. The cost of land per apartment can be made quite small by building higher.
Well the shadow of a tall building covers sunshine in a large area. This limits its applicability.
Re: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
#125Earlier quoted context omitted.
> And where does this money go? What does it end up doing? Some of it goes to providing jobs to those same middle class people.
Considering their profits, I don't believe that is where it is going: http://www.luxottica.com/en/record-2017-net-profits-and-free... Using a monopolistic position to overcharge doesn't generate more jobs, just profits.
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Re: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
#126It's articles like this that make me wonder how much of our middle class burden comes from hidden rent seeking parasites like this. I honestly don't know. I'm not trying to imply any particular thing. I honestly wonder. These sorts of things can stack up through the layers of companies that make things. And where does this money go? What does it end up doing?
Well, my first thought was - if eyewear can be produced for less, why doesn't somebody take advantage of the opportunity and do so? Capitalism at its finest and all that. But the answer immediately struck me: if somebody was offering a product at half the cost everybody else was, I wouldn't trust it - and I suspect most other people wouldn't, either. Considering the size of the initial investment, this upstart wouldn…
Zenni Optical does, as well as several other online retailers.
There have been a few good HN threads on the topic previously. Here are a couple I had bookmarked:
Re: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
#127It's articles like this that make me wonder how much of our middle class burden comes from hidden rent seeking parasites like this. I honestly don't know. I'm not trying to imply any particular thing. I honestly wonder. These sorts of things can stack up through the layers of companies that make things. And where does this money go? What does it end up doing?
Isn't this just as much another fashion trap?
Many things from underwear, glasses, clothes to paper tissues are branded fashion items.
None of these items are expensive to make, we just don't buy the cheapest.. probably you can find cheap glasses somewhere online, if not there's probably a business opportunity in that :)
Question: do people want to buy cheap glasses, clothes, underwear? Or do they want to buy branded Kleenex tissues?
Re: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
#128How reasonable would it be to the prescription process; for example, a kiosk in the mall where I sit in a booth and click (better/worse) while looking into some-kind of a vision testing device. The whole thing is so procedural and really, not very difficult to administer. It seems like extremely low hanging fruit for automation.
Optimizing for just "better or worse" will result in excessively strong correction. If you're only looking at a single letter in the very center of your field of vision, then overcorrection feels sharper and easier to focus on. You don't notice the additional optical artifacts everywhere else. The ideal glasses have just barely enough correction. However, this isn't an argument against automation, because human optom…
I've just always found myself frustrated by the sense that beyond looking into my eyes for signs of disease, the actual act of making a prescription could be done by anyone with an afternoon of training; yet I have to make an appointment and drop 100-200$ for something that is, on occasion, less effort than getting an order correct at chipotle.
Re: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
#129Earlier quoted context omitted.
God forbid anyone make a profit? I’m not sure what your point is, prices are set by what the market is willing to pay. Anything else is not sustainable. You are not entitled to buy houses wherever you want for whatever price you think is good. Certainly not in the Bay Area.
I believe the GP's point is that regulation geared toward limiting supply circumvents natural market forces.
More accurately, it exploits natural market forces.
Re: How badly are we being ripped off on eyewear? Former industry execs tell all
#130I've often wondered if there is any reason at all to allow companies to own/buy/merge other companies. I have not found one.