NAFTA Years Later

[Imran Siddiqui]

Which is why people who say CEOs do nothing have no idea what they are talking about . I mean, you have to be SMART to concoct some of those schemes!

[Master Zen]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Which is why people who say CEOs do nothing have no idea what they are talking about . I mean, you have to be SMAER to concoct some of those schemes!

I've argued my ass off that CEO's do more than people think. I guess it's pop culture to imagine the lazy CEO playing golf and goofing off in their computers. But behind the laziness... there is brilliance.

-MZ

[Imran Siddiqui]

Damn, it must be late (It is... it's 4:30 in the morning), because I just made a typo on the word: "smart", misspelling it.

Master Zen: I wish I was the public's perception of a CEO .

[Master Zen]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui
Damn, it must be late (It is... it's 4:30 in the morning), because I just made a typo on the word: "smart", misspelling it.

Master Zen: I wish I was the public's perception of a CEO .

Late... it's 3:30 am here, and I have a thesis to finish in 2 weeks...


I wish I was the public's perception of a politician

[Imran Siddiqui]

The public's perception of politicians in general or the perception of the 'good guys' they themselves voted for in their own districts .

[Master Zen]

We don't have "good guys" down here.

So I guess I'll have to go with "in general"

[Imran Siddiqui]

Ah, in the US, it is believed that all politicans are scum and corrupt... except for the Congressman that you voted for. He's the only good guy .

[Master Zen]

We hate our congressmen even more than we hate any other type of politician

[Imran Siddiqui]

Then why vote for him?

[Master Zen]

Who says I vote?

For the record, here in Mexico we have a representative system of congress in which depending on the overall vote, the parties themselves pick the senators, so, you end up voting in some cases for people the party pick, not people you pick. Stupid. Really stupid. That's why despite the fact there is no reelection in congress, you have people who are in there for ages.

Our political system sucks balls.

[Master Zen]

We have a guy called Diego Fernandez, from PAN (right wing party in power). Senator. Ran against Zedillo in the 1994 elections and despite thrashing him in the public debate went on to lose. Rumor has it that the PRI offered him a good chuck of Acapulco real estate, something which I don't doubt at all. What is worse, is that the little bugger has made himself insanely rich by filing lawsuits AGAINST THE GOVERNMENT and winning. Now, as a congressman, you are supposed to be involved soley in the congress busniess, not litigating independently, and much less against the government you are working for!!

And he's still there...the major obstacle for the congressional deadlock to be breached, Mr. Diego himself.

[Kidlicious]

Originally posted by Master Zen
I know what you're getting at, just that I think you're confusing the effect of monopoly with the effect of price discrimination which is something even non-monopolies do. The reason new hi-tech gadets are more expensive is because of 2 things:

1) the effect of scale economies which comes with greater production (i.e. as more people start buying DVDs, production of DVDs increases and the scale effect starts dropping the marginal cost of each unit.)

2) the effect of price discrimination. Basically this means that despite the scale effect the DVD producer will charge a higher price (no matter if he is or isn't a monopolist) to get more out of the consumer excedent. What this means is that across the demand curve you have people who increasingly demand the same product at lower prices. At level Q=1 you'd have the highest price for a DVD because that person would be the extremely rich tech geek who will pay $10,000 for the very first DVD on the market. Each subsecuent person will demand a DVD but at a lower price. i.e. the max price each one of us is willing to pay for a DVD is in essense the demand curve. If I am willing to pay $200 for one, and the average cost is $100, then that $100 I did NOT pay is my consumer excedent. So, what companies do when a new product comes out (and this especially happens with electronics and computer products) is that they will hike up the price at launch so they can get the rich techies to buy their stuff at a higher price (and here individual behavoir comes in as being the first to buy a DVD on the block carries status symbol utility). Since everyone EVENTUALLY is going to buy a DVD, why not charge a ****load for the first months? Companies get a lot more revenue doing that, then slowly lowering the price to get more people to buy it.

-MZ

(btw, hope the post was actually understandable... you'll probably find a better explination at Kidicious' link)

I haven't thought of it that way before, but you're right. What you're talking about is also called economic profit.

I hate to keep trying to look at things in the neo-classical model, but if you do you would be talking about the MC curve shifting to the right as the market became more saturated, right?

[Arrian]

Ah, in the US, it is believed that all politicans are scum and corrupt... except for the Congressman that you voted for. He's the only good guy

Take that second bit out. I believe all politicians are scumbags unless/until they give me a reason to think differently. Even the guys I vote for. Mostly I vote for what I consider to be the lesser of two evils. Plus voting for a third party at almost any opportunity - anything to try and loosen the stranglehold of the Republicrats.

-Arrian