Here is the opening of the piece, in the latest Mint:
Sometimes my life feels like a series of never-ending frustrations. The
last three products I bought at Best Buy–a large electronics store–had
to be returned because they simply didn’t work. The DVD from Amazon has
a fatal skip. My wife’s new Mac computer doesn’t function on our
wireless network. I dread any call to customer service. A wait is
followed by a transfer, which is followed by two more transfers, which
is in turn followed by a promise to call me back. The return call never
comes. My billing dispute on my AT&T credit card dragged on since
May, mostly because they simply didn’t find it worth their while to
respond to my letters.
But there’s a happy ending, sort of:
If you need consolation, I have two suggestions.First, count your blessings and read some Buddhist or Stoic philosophy. Second, take your revenge in the form of lower prices.
In
the short run, one supplier can rip you off pretty easily. In the long
run, it is harder for the world as a whole to avoid giving you a pretty
good deal.
Tyler wrote (link above): “Take the proverbial cheat auto mechanic. Maybe half the time he will charge you even when he hasn’t done any useful fixing. But in the long run that extra revenue will draw about twice as many auto mechanics into the industry to compete for your money. Yes, they will be ripping you off half the time but prices will fall by a roughly proportionate amount. In the long run, you, as a consumer, will do okay. You pay twice as often as you ought to, but as a consolation each time you pay only about half as much.”
What mechanisms need to be in place so, in the end, I can get my car actually fixed by somebody at some price, rather than just taking it to twice as many cheat auto mechanics?
Isn’t it required that we be able to predict the expected quality of the service BEFORE we buy? (much like Darwinian mechanisms work best if they increase the likelihood of having offspring, not if they just extend fitness after offspring have been taken care of)
With auto mechanics, word of mouth isn’t too bad. If you talk to two neighbors and they are satisfied, the mechanic is probably OK.
I’m not sure this works with many other products without some help — Angie’s List, Walter Mossberg in the WSJ, etc.
And then there’s oligopolies. If both AT&T and Comcast are inadequate providers to your home, one might need to wait a good portion of a lifetime for improved alternatives. Maybe in the long term things improve, but “in the long run we are all dead”.
“My wife’s new Mac computer doesn’t function on our wireless network.”
You have dozens of graduate students who could fix that problem in five minutes.
My personal peeve is MP3 players. I’ve gone through 10+ in the last 3 years.
I try not to buy the same brand twice, but they are all basically equally crappy.
The main switching cost is the different software. The best ones just act like a thumbdrive and let you drag and drop.
I don’t think Tyler is correct in this article.
It is a question of Bastiat’s broken window fallacy…
” Have you ever witnessed the anger of the good shopkeeper, James Goodfellow, when his careless son happened to break a square of glass? If you have been present at such a scene, you will most assuredly bear witness to the fact, that every one of the spectators, were there even thirty of them, by common consent apparently, offered the unfortunate owner this invariable consolation—”It is an ill wind that blows nobody good. Everybody must live, and what would become of the glaziers if panes of glass were never broken?”
Now, this form of condolence contains an entire theory, which it will be well to show up in this simple case, seeing that it is precisely the same as that which, unhappily, regulates the greater part of our economical institutions.
Suppose it cost six francs to repair the damage, and you say that the accident brings six francs to the glazier’s trade—that it encourages that trade to the amount of six francs—I grant it; I have not a word to say against it; you reason justly. The glazier comes, performs his task, receives his six francs, rubs his hands, and, in his heart, blesses the careless child. All this is that which is seen.
But if, on the other hand, you come to the conclusion, as is too often the case, that it is a good thing to break windows, that it causes money to circulate, and that the encouragement of industry in general will be the result of it, you will oblige me to call out, “Stop there! Your theory is confined to that which is seen; it takes no account of that which is not seen.”
It is not seen that as our shopkeeper has spent six francs upon one thing, he cannot spend them upon another. It is not seen that if he had not had a window to replace, he would, perhaps, have replaced his old shoes, or added another book to his library. In short, he would have employed his six francs in some way, which this accident has prevented.”
We do not benefit from fraud. Had it not occurred we would have spent our money wisely elsewhere and encouraged other businesses and industries.
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