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Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

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Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#91

Post by pbhjpbhj »

CoastalCoder wrote: post #43
spicyusername wrote: post #6

I very much agree with the premise that economists unduly focus on a few metrics of dubious quality - labor force participation, personal consumption expenditures, market capitalization, wage growth, etc - and overfit them to construct a coherent narrative about the "strength" of the economy and what the experience of living in that economy must be like. There's a story right now being peddled by all the talking head…

Some factors on my list of sentiment drags: * Manufacturers reducing product quality without buyers' knowledge. E.g., Pyrex or some SSD makers. * Shrinkflation: grocery stores selling slightly smaller-sized packages without buyers' knowledge. E.g., containers that used to be square, staying equally wide (for shelf space facing) but less deep. * Widespread Terms and Conditions / EULAs that undermine previously reliabl…

Yes, product changes should be logged IMO so that customers can access that information. Companies essentially pass off a new product as the old product now, lying to consumers. Capitalism relies on informed customers to target purchases towards the 'best' products; this breaks that ability. VC firms seem to buy well-established companies, reduce the quality and ride them into the ground, destroying a lot of value that has built up over a long time. Rinse-and-repeat and the overall value of products goes down. This is a point for government to require a detailed account of products.

It shouldn't be a mystery whether shrinkflation has occurred it should say it right on the product, and be confirmed in a government verified database.

In the UK it feels more like corrupted consumer protections. I suppose that's a type of failed, but it's not because the consumer protections were bad, it's because they were removed by a government who work for (or just are) the capitalists rather than the demos.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#92

Post by Spooky23 »

llm_trw wrote: post #78
Forgeties79 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a pretty weird take to me. Crime stats and polling of people’s perception of crime show this as clearly the wrong approach for instance. Most studies show that no matter what direction crime is going in, a substantial majority of people think their neighborhoods are safer and that everywhere else is basically a war zone that is getting worse. There’s a total disconnect locally/nationally in perception that is…

>Crime stats and polling of people’s perception of crime show this as clearly the wrong approach for instance. The only crime stat you can trust is murder and that's because bodies can't be hidden (easily). Everything else gets swept under the rug. When I wanted to report my car broken into I was hung up on three times because of a poor quality line, which was fine before I told them what I was calling for. When I we…

100% correct. They even teach this in graduate criminology programs. Stats are only consistently reliable for a narrow range of events.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#93

Post by patrickmay »

throwaway63467 wrote: post #66
patrickmay wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Housing costs are primarily due to zoning and other local and state government policies that limit or prohibit construction.

And these policies come into place all by themselves?

Of course not, but the policies are driven by politics that prevent the market from providing what people want. High housing prices aren't a market failure, they are due to NIMBYism.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#94

Post by enavari »

llm_trw wrote: post #78
Forgeties79 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a pretty weird take to me. Crime stats and polling of people’s perception of crime show this as clearly the wrong approach for instance. Most studies show that no matter what direction crime is going in, a substantial majority of people think their neighborhoods are safer and that everywhere else is basically a war zone that is getting worse. There’s a total disconnect locally/nationally in perception that is…

>Crime stats and polling of people’s perception of crime show this as clearly the wrong approach for instance. The only crime stat you can trust is murder and that's because bodies can't be hidden (easily). Everything else gets swept under the rug. When I wanted to report my car broken into I was hung up on three times because of a poor quality line, which was fine before I told them what I was calling for. When I we…

One need only download a community based self reporting app like "citizen" to see how much crime really exist.. It's more than you'd like know. Like the previous poster said, not everything is reported.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#95

Post by estebank »

izacus wrote: post #82
Forgeties79 wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That’s a pretty weird take to me. Crime stats and polling of people’s perception of crime show this as clearly the wrong approach for instance. Most studies show that no matter what direction crime is going in, a substantial majority of people think their neighborhoods are safer and that everywhere else is basically a war zone that is getting worse. There’s a total disconnect locally/nationally in perception that is…

You're making the exact same mistake as the poster you're answering to warns about - you're mixing the objective reality ("absolute crime numbers") to percieved reality of population. If the population percieves themselves unsafe and unhappy, your numbers don't really mean much to them because to restore happy society you need to look at *perception* and fix the reasoning behind it. Making the crime stats number go d…

> you need to look at perception and fix the reasoning behind it.

Many times that perception is shaped by the media we consume, which has no obligation to have any connection to the reality on the ground. At that point whatever is done to improve the reality doesn't have to have any impact on people's perception.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#96

Post by dasil003 »

Forgeties79 wrote: post #57
raizer88 wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"The thing I have noticed is when the anecdotes and the data disagree, the anecdotes are usually right. There's something wrong with the way you are measuring it," - Jeff Bezos

That’s a pretty weird take to me. Crime stats and polling of people’s perception of crime show this as clearly the wrong approach for instance. Most studies show that no matter what direction crime is going in, a substantial majority of people think their neighborhoods are safer and that everywhere else is basically a war zone that is getting worse. There’s a total disconnect locally/nationally in perception that is…

It’s just a refutation of naive bias towards statistics, which is rampant in big organizations (see the McNamara fallacy). This is codified in the idea of being “data driven”, which is the right thing if your data is a true proxy for the thing you care about; in practice it often isn’t and you have to incorporate some more flimsy or subjective signal to better understand a problem.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#97

Post by pydry »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #41
phkahler wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>> I'll add one of my biggest stressors - opaque pricing. Economic "models" make assumptions like markets being efficient. Meanwhile in the business classes next door they teach how to avoid competition because it's a race to the bottom. They all learn the prisoners dilemma as an example because it's how you need to think to avoid overt collusion. I'd like an economic model as powerful as the laws of thermodynamics,…

> Economic "models" make assumptions like markets being efficient No? You’re thinking of a specific class of models. Generally speaking, prescriptive economics is about characterising what an efficient market would look like and then identifying why reality is not that. (And whether that deviance is good or bad.) This article could be seen doing that. It seems like domains should be closed to $2, given an efficient m…

Most of the assumptions made in economic models conceal sources of profit.

They dont appear to be there to simplify complexity because they simulate situations that have never and will never be approximated (never been perfect competition or information, never will be).

It's unlike, say, physics in this respect.

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#98

Post by wholinator2 »

nothercastle wrote: post #77
ponector wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The answer is simple. Some consumers are feeling terrible and they are vocal about it. People mostly are ok and not talking about it.

The metrics are likely comparing 2020 item and 2024 item and assuming it’s the same thing but the manufacturer cleverly gutted the 2024 item of all quality parts and just kept the name

While also cleverly raising the price 50-200% during covid and then cleverly never lowering it back to normal once the supply chains started working

Re: Economic Termites: Monopolies not noticeable enough for most of us

#100

Post by citizenpaul »

GiorgioG wrote: post #68
teeray wrote: post #48

My most recent instance of this is online ordering with Dunkin’ Donuts. The app has no feedback to indicate what items are in stock, so it’s possible to order things that can’t be fulfilled. If you don’t want their substitute, the store cannot cancel the order. You have to call an 800 number and plead your case. Sure, it’s not a huge hardship, but it’s another instance of making the cancellation path more difficult t…

Dispute the charge with your bank - you did not get what you paid for, and it's not on you to chase them down and waste your time. If/when enough people do this, they'll get their shit together.

This is basically a variation on tragedy of the commons. The solution is right there in front of everyone and "simply" requires everyone to do it coordinately. I've told this solution to numerous people, just log onto your bank website and click "dispute" and thats it you are done. Nope, they either don't believe me or are afraid of doing it because "banks". They continue to just allow crappy businesses to effectively steal their money or they waste time with a 45min customer service call.

Its the same with many other things like simply boycotting an abusive business. People say starbucks is bad. All that is required to "destroy" starbucks is simply go to any of the dozens of local coffee shops that exist everywhere for a month instead. That would make the heads spin/roll at the C-level at starbucks but still no one does it.

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