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Dupes took over the world

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Re: Dupes took over the world

#91

Post by tonyedgecombe »

nine_k wrote: post #24
Joker_vD wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But think of the jobs! There used to be a million people involved in horseshoe-making, now there is only a thousand, and the rest of that million now has to do something else! And since there is literally nothing else for them to do, they'll have to die out :( The most bizarre thing about the economical systems is that there indeed were cases where former workers of the industries that collapsed/disappeared indeed we…

It depends on the speed of change though. If a million-strong industry collapses overnight, it can lead to really painful social disturbances. If it winds down in 10 years, the transition can be much more smooth. BTW see also https://www.edge.org/conversation/gin-television-and-cogniti...

At the start of the last century the UK had a million people working in the coal mining industry. Now it is effectively zero.

That reduction happened over a long period but it wasn't without its problems. Even now there are old coal mining villages that have never really recovered economically.

Re: Dupes took over the world

#92

Post by tonyedgecombe »

scbrg wrote: post #72
NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Now, all the villagers can get cheaper horseshoes, so they don’t have to spend as many resources on shoes for their horses, and can now invest more into what their village is best at, and sell those goods to other villages. And for a village that had 50 such specialties... they can make do with 49 specialties. Then with 48. And 45 as well. 25 eventually. But some day in the future, their great-grandchildren wake up,…

> And maybe there are even fewer people to worry about this, because when the moved to the city, those people stopped having children. > Who is this good for? Is it good for you? Well, as a global population reduction is sorely needed, this is good for pretty much everybody. There's absolutely no way we can keep extracting resources and polluting at the rate demanded by our current enormous population (which has more…

The population is still growing because people are living longer. There aren't many places left in the world with above replacement birth rates.

Re: Dupes took over the world

#94

Post by RobotToaster »

aitchnyu wrote: post #13
bcraven wrote: post #2

With decreasing quality of branded products, there's less to distinguish them from dupes. https://ledger.worseonpurpose.com/

Yup, need a new term like reputation hacking to use a good reputation to sell lower quality products or increase prices, sometimes from a new owner.

Isn't this just another form of enshittification.

Re: Dupes took over the world

#95

Post by RobotToaster »

JimsonYang wrote: post #67
zkmon wrote: post #59

"Dupe" might need to be more specific. What is copied? Is it design, brand name, quality, parts or functionality? What is not to be copied? and why? Dupe might affect the seller, but customer doesn't care much. In the past, people had to go by brand name as an assurance of quality. We have other means now. Reviews from other buyers, detailed specifications, return policies - all reduced the moat of branding. People c…

> what is not being copied and why? Most counterfeits goods skimp on manufacturing quality. Like instead of very detailed stitching with intricate design they might just skip that altogether. For instance one of the easiest ways to identify dupes is if the brand name and design on a bag 'flows' to the other side. Obv counterfeits dont really care because they want to save money For counterfeit goods that are so high…

There are entire subreddits these days dedicated to reviewing fashion reps.

Re: Dupes took over the world

#96

Post by [deleted] »

uxhacker wrote: post #86
coldtea wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They said that, but it was already quite famous for centuries. As were other paintings, not copied, and not involved in some high publicity heist like it.

That was exactly the point. The fame came from the number of copies of the painting. Some people say brands like Gucci became more famous because of the number copies made.

[deleted]

Re: Dupes took over the world

#97

Post by kakacik »

illliillll wrote: post #85
rob74 wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guess it's "generic" in the sense that everyone calls a sparkling wine "champagne", same as everyone calls a copier a "Xerox machine", but if some other company would try to sell their copier using the Xerox name, they would still be sued by Xerox (the company)?

At least here in Europe, even children know that “sparkling wine” and “champagne” refer to different things.

There is a kinder variant for such - prosecco, which can actually mean OK quality (within sparkling stuff bounds, which are not high).

But yeah calling anything Champagne apart from stuff coming from Champagne is a bad form and looked down upon a bit. Small kids do such mistakes and thats fine, adults shouldn't.

Re: Dupes took over the world

#98

Post by inigyou »

bruce511 wrote: post #60
inigyou wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just shows how powerful capital interests are.

I always find this line of thought interesting. Because it implies the manufacturer has all the power. But they don't. The consumer does. Ultimately the manufacturer wins the horse-shoe battle because they are cheaper. And the consumers in the village prefer cheap shoes to locally made (expensive) ones. Fundamentally consumers like cheap stuff. Manufacturing shifts happen because as soon as there's a cheaper output,…

Look up "race to the bottom", a term that describes lose-lose situations resulting from rational market dynamics.

Re: Dupes took over the world

#99

Post by inigyou »

scbrg wrote: post #72
NoMoreNicksLeft wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Now, all the villagers can get cheaper horseshoes, so they don’t have to spend as many resources on shoes for their horses, and can now invest more into what their village is best at, and sell those goods to other villages. And for a village that had 50 such specialties... they can make do with 49 specialties. Then with 48. And 45 as well. 25 eventually. But some day in the future, their great-grandchildren wake up,…

> And maybe there are even fewer people to worry about this, because when the moved to the city, those people stopped having children. > Who is this good for? Is it good for you? Well, as a global population reduction is sorely needed, this is good for pretty much everybody. There's absolutely no way we can keep extracting resources and polluting at the rate demanded by our current enormous population (which has more…

It's unethical to reduce population by making people starve to death.

Re: Dupes took over the world

#100

Post by j1elo »

cjs_ac wrote: post #7

> When Deckers, the company behind fleece-lined UGG boots, recently took Quince to court over its lookalike boots, it tried to bar Quince from referencing “dupe culture” at trial. > The bid failed, confirming that “dupes” and “dupe culture” — a commercial ecosystem built around providing consumers cheaper alternatives to name-brand products — are cultural phenomena here to stay. > The trial focused on whether Quince’…

> a commercial ecosystem built around providing consumers cheaper alternatives to name-brand products

This is expected IMHO, given that name brand product do nothing more than raise and raise prices, with varying list of ~excuses~ reasons such as "war here or there", "material/labor costs", "crisis", etc... But consumers' salaries are the same than before price raises of the last 7~10 years, so the new prices are unjustified (no better quality, no better products) and so people will keep expecting that a boot (or anything else) costs today the same as it cost in 2019.

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