[lbo-talk] Delong puts the smackdown on ol' Whiskers

tully tully at bellsouth.net
Wed Apr 6 16:48:17 PDT 2005


On Wednesday 06 April 2005 02:14 pm, Doug Henwood wrote:
>By the way, even though Wal-Mart has very substantial market power,
>it's been using that power to drive down wages & prices. About the
>only major "monopoly" I can think of right now that's overcharging
>consumers is Microsoft - and a lot of its consumers are businesses,
>not individuals.

I can see how consumer gouging is possible with utility company monopolies, where alternatives don't exist, but how does one overcharge customers when other choice do exist, even if they are much smaller companies? As much as I dislike M$, they are not the only choice. If the consumer is willing to pay the price, for whatever (dumb) reason, how can it be called overcharging?

I remember someone saying he thought Ward Churchill was overcharging with his speaking fees. If people are willing to pay him to speak and are not coerced in any way, how could Churchill possibly overcharge? If his fee was too high, people wouldn't pay him. If he was too low, he'd be inundated with more engagements than he could fulfill.

Isn't price based very largely on demand? Is there anything wrong with that?

--tully



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