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Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

nytimes.com

101–110 of 259 posts

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#101
post #100

The end goal must be to emulate US healthcare where nobody knows what things cost and you find out only months or years after buying.

Regarding US healthcare costs, I cannot understand why people are not in the streets with pitchforks. Most of Europe has this problem solved. What is the root cause w.r.t. the current situation? Are there any obvious ways out? Do any US politicians have any plans for a change? Are there any discussed proposals how to reform?

the US has a bigger public healthcare system than, afaik, every European country. the reason why there aren't pitchforks is also because the US is a much richer country than Europe so people are happy to pay for more healthcare. if you are rich, the marginal value of money vs more time being alive is zero (an example is orthapedics for the elderly, the US spends a huge amount in this area relative to most European countries).

it is worth considering whether could a rational person could possibly disagree with the idea that the government is best placed to decide whether extending your life is a good investment (there are European systems that are not well run which resolve this unusual ways i.e. being unable to provide basic healthcare whilst giving hundreds of millions to PR agencies, sometimes run by people who happened to work for the government...total coincidence, to run media campaigns to "prevent" ill health).

it is not simple. there are largely private systems that run very well, funnily enough most of these are in Europe. there are public systems that run very badly, again many of these are in Europe. the discussion of public vs private is largely not relevant or particularly interesting (do people think that doctors just work for free in Europe? they do not, the incentives when you try to create a cheaper healthcare system by underpaying doctors, which exists in parts of Europe, creates some very bad situations i.e. an overreliance on doctors from Africa who have unknown training, Americans tend not to have imagined the scenario where healthcare is "free"/paid with taxes but they are being operated on by someone who can't speak English).

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#102
post #88

This is like responding to symptoms and not addressing the root cause. This is something that should be fixed by supply and demand, buyers should have a choice where to buy and sellers should have a choice how to price their products. These problems arise when dealing with a monopoly, that undermines the free market and that's a far worse systemic problem and the root cause of these issues. AI has nothing to do with…

There is an imbalance in leverage and timing though. Dynamic pricing requires a lot of real time and historical data; companies can access and share that information easily, and you as a consumer cannot. Even in areas with multiple competitors, they can (and do) effectively collude by getting their information through data brokers and third parties. I don't have a solution, but we are currently very far away from a f…

When the government actively decides the price of goods and services, it becomes more and more like communism. The government should instead uphold the free market and proactively prevent collusion and monopolies that threaten the free market, this is harder to do in the US because of lobbying though.

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#103
post #100

The end goal must be to emulate US healthcare where nobody knows what things cost and you find out only months or years after buying.

Regarding US healthcare costs, I cannot understand why people are not in the streets with pitchforks. Most of Europe has this problem solved. What is the root cause w.r.t. the current situation? Are there any obvious ways out? Do any US politicians have any plans for a change? Are there any discussed proposals how to reform?

> What is the root cause w.r.t. the current situation?

The current US is built to accomodate the top 0.1%. Their profiteering is more important than the good health of the population.

> Are there any obvious ways out?

Not really. Get money out of politics? Aggressively tax the wealthy and nationalize the entire health apparatus? Easier said than done.

> Do any US politicians have any plans for a change?

The only ones serious about it are on the progressive left, fought harshly by both Republicans and Establishment Democrats, under the guise of their respective patrons.

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#104
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding US healthcare costs, I cannot understand why people are not in the streets with pitchforks. Most of Europe has this problem solved. What is the root cause w.r.t. the current situation? Are there any obvious ways out? Do any US politicians have any plans for a change? Are there any discussed proposals how to reform?

the US has a bigger public healthcare system than, afaik, every European country. the reason why there aren't pitchforks is also because the US is a much richer country than Europe so people are happy to pay for more healthcare. if you are rich, the marginal value of money vs more time being alive is zero (an example is orthapedics for the elderly, the US spends a huge amount in this area relative to most European co…

> the US has a bigger public healthcare system than, afaik, every European country

In which metric(s)? Afaik, life expectancy is lower in the US than in most of western Europe. And Americans are known to pay much more than Europeans on healthcare, on average.

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#105
post #100

The end goal must be to emulate US healthcare where nobody knows what things cost and you find out only months or years after buying.

Regarding US healthcare costs, I cannot understand why people are not in the streets with pitchforks. Most of Europe has this problem solved. What is the root cause w.r.t. the current situation? Are there any obvious ways out? Do any US politicians have any plans for a change? Are there any discussed proposals how to reform?

> Most of Europe has this problem solved.

With paracetamol :)

(Dutch people know what I am talking about)

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#106
post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, surveillance pricing is used to get the maximum out of the customer, not the opposite. This needs to be illegal. If anything surveillance pricing will make the retail business MORE like the health care system, because the latter already employs these tactics: the unhealthier you are, the more you pay. Same thing as surveillance pricing. It's a fundamental shift from: "I sell this product for the cheapest price po…

> the unhealthier you are, the more you pay. I'd re-write that as "the more you consume the more you pay". Seems normal.

Should there be any consumer surplus?

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#107
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding US healthcare costs, I cannot understand why people are not in the streets with pitchforks. Most of Europe has this problem solved. What is the root cause w.r.t. the current situation? Are there any obvious ways out? Do any US politicians have any plans for a change? Are there any discussed proposals how to reform?

the US has a bigger public healthcare system than, afaik, every European country. the reason why there aren't pitchforks is also because the US is a much richer country than Europe so people are happy to pay for more healthcare. if you are rich, the marginal value of money vs more time being alive is zero (an example is orthapedics for the elderly, the US spends a huge amount in this area relative to most European co…

The US also pays relatvely more, not just absolute. Where could I see the US system delivering then? Not sure the data is so clear cut there.

Re: Maryland to ban A.I.-driven price increases in grocery stores

#108
post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Regarding US healthcare costs, I cannot understand why people are not in the streets with pitchforks. Most of Europe has this problem solved. What is the root cause w.r.t. the current situation? Are there any obvious ways out? Do any US politicians have any plans for a change? Are there any discussed proposals how to reform?

the US has a bigger public healthcare system than, afaik, every European country. the reason why there aren't pitchforks is also because the US is a much richer country than Europe so people are happy to pay for more healthcare. if you are rich, the marginal value of money vs more time being alive is zero (an example is orthapedics for the elderly, the US spends a huge amount in this area relative to most European co…

>the US has a bigger public healthcare system than, afaik, every European country.

Probably because Europeans commenting don't know how big Medicare and Medicaid are.

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