Time to stop being a consumer...

[Togo]

Why compete against other companies, who are well-informed and know what they're doing, when you can compete against your customers, who aren't and don't?

 

[untermensche]

Why compete against other companies, who are well-informed and know what they're doing, when you can compete against your customers, who aren't and don't?

The reason of your customers is the enemy to overcome.

 

[skepticalbip]

Why compete against other companies, who are well-informed and know what they're doing, when you can compete against your customers, who aren't and don't?

Assume some customers walk into a convince store wanting a chocolate bar. On the shelf is Nestle chocolate bars and Hershey's chocolate bars. Which will they pick? The one they don't pick will be a missed sale for that company.

Both Nestle and Hershey's advertise to try to make their chocolate bar the one that is picked by trying to make the catchiest, most memorable commercials. This is competing against other companies trying to be the one that is picked.

Only a limited number of chocolate bars will be sold in any year. Each candy company wants to be the one that sells the most so makes the most profit. If they don't advertise then the competing company that does advertise will eventually be selling all the chocolate bars because no one would have heard of the non-advertising company and people don't trust products from companies they have never heard of. If you wanted a chocolate bar and saw on the shelf a choice of a Nestle chocolate bar, a Hershey's chocolate bar, or an Auntie Juanita's Sweets chocolate bar, which would you be most likely to buy?




Or your car is in bad shape so you need to buy a new one:
Do you buy a Chevrolet, a Ford, or a Schmutz?

Or you don't need a new car:
Do you buy any of them?

 

[SimpleDon]

That the so-called free market can operate without external regulation, specifically from a government. I know, it is a silly idea, but once again, a lot of people seem to believe it. Kind of like an invisible, all powerful sky pilot who can see into our deepest being. Logically insane, but a lot of people believe in it.

You are being really vague here. Operate in what way? Always operate in that fashion? In every possible market one can imagine? Perhaps some markets can, and others can't?

Sorry, I am trying to characterize other people's beliefs, ones that I don't share. It is a difficult task, to do it without it sounding ridiculous. Without it sounding like a 'strawman' in internet speak.

As I understand it the main reason behind the idea that we need to deregulate the economy is that the various markets can self-regulate. That the mechanism of supply and demand setting prices is sufficient to maintain market discipline. That we don't need all of the government regulations to keep the individual economic actors from behaving badly. That government is itself the source of all of the economic problems that we see. That government is incompetent and non-productive. That the power that government exercises over the economy is inviably captured by the economic actors that it is suppose to be regulating. That this regulatory capture is the source of all of our economic problems.

Self regulation is what would allow the so-called free market to be free. Otherwise you would have to explain what is meant by the term "free market." What is a regulated free market, a term that makes no sense.

Here is the Austrian/Libertarian view.

Here is the inevitable Wikipedia article defining the free market as a market that self-regulates.

Here is Alan Greenspan admitting that he and the Fed made a mistake in assuming that the financial markets could self-regulate, a mistake that resulted in the Great Financial Crisis and Recession.

Here is a dictionary definition of self-regulating. ​

The problem is that when you start accepting that some markets need government regulation, the question becomes how much regulation is enough, not whether or not there is such a thing as a free market. By accepting some regulation you have agreed that the market that needs some regulation is obviously not a free market.

So the question now is "is there any market that is capable of self-regulating?" Arguably the closest that we have to a market that can self-regulate are various financial markets, such as the derivatives market which by law can't be regulated. The same derivatives market that blew up giving us the Great Financial Crisis of 2008.

But the problem with the financial markets is that thev are not constrained by supply. Their products are nothing but pieces of paper that make promises. Zero cost of production. Unlimited potential for abuse.