> On May 31, 11:26 pm, clarity <[email protected]> wrote:
> Scuse my Cynicism bit nothing is done for nobility anymore, mark ups
> on everything is a consequence of a capitilist society.
> It doesnt make any logical argument to rally against one minute aspect
> of capatilism without denouncing the entire system!!
> Help me trust you.
Small business owner here. I don't want to turn this into a political
debate on the merits of capitalism, however, it is possible to pick
out a few industries for scorn without denouncing the entire system.
There are some sectors where the usual laws of supply and demand
simply do not work and there are some where supply and demand is
exploited. I would put health care in the category of a sector where
supply and demand simply does not work. Everybody needs health care.
You can not opt out of it. As long as people are breathing there is an
unending demand for the product. Sometimes we are literally talking
life and death issues. How much would you pay to stay alive?
I would put eyeglasses in a category where the usual laws of supply
and demand are exploited. First off, many people have an eyecare
benefit through their workplace. An annual lump sum of 'use it or lose
it' money that is essentially free to them. This artificially creates
demand. Secondly, there is woefully little education with this
product. When you have people with "free money" buying something they
know little about, there is an opportunity for price gouging. Which
brings me to #3--exorbitant markups. I have to disagree with your
other post--eyeglasses are marked up far more than most other
products. Essentially a set of eyeglasses is 15 grams of steel bent
into shape and about 25 cents worth of plastic shaped via a
computerized polishing machine to match your prescription. Yet we are
asked to pay $300 to $500 for these materials when they are configured
into the shape of eyeglasses.
At the other end of the spectrum you have gasoline. Consider: the raw
material--crude oil--is drilled out of the ground in a country 14,000
miles away from us. It is then loaded on gigantic ships that ply the
ocean for 2 weeks and brought to a U.S. refinery. Here it is off-
loaded and made into blended gasoline, then put onto trucks which fan
out and deliver it to individual filling stations all around the
country. Finally we put this commodity in our vehicles which allow us
to go to our jobs and earn our incomes. Oh, and while we're at that
filling station, perhaps we buy a 16 ounce bottle of water for $1.29
(that's $10.32 a gallon, about 4X the price of gasoline.)
So it is possible to single out selected industries without ripping
the entire system.
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