Thursday, July 07, 2011

Why We Need Rich People: Because They Buy New Products At the Highest Price for the Worst Version

Thanks to rich people like Gordon Gekko, who was making mobile phone calls on a $4,000 "brick with buttons" in the 1980s movie Wall Street, we can now get an iPhone for $40.



HT: Jeff Jacoby

17 Comments:

At 7/08/2011 6:34 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Brilliant. And more evidence that price fixing ruins innovation.

 
At 7/08/2011 6:48 AM, Blogger hal said...

Rich people also have lots of disposable investment capital.

 
At 7/08/2011 7:19 AM, Blogger tom said...

Great Video! Better a rich man who can freely choose where to allocate his disposable income -than- a government centrally managed agency that allocates resources based on political whims.

 
At 7/08/2011 7:57 AM, Blogger morganovich said...

why, it's almost as if no one man is smart enough to plan the entire economy...

has anyone told the president?

 
At 7/08/2011 8:48 AM, Blogger Rufus II said...

Unemployment rate: 9.2%

I guess them rich people better run out and buy Two iphones.



Oh, wait, they're made in China . . . . .

 
At 7/08/2011 9:22 AM, Blogger Tom said...

Freedom.

 
At 7/08/2011 9:39 AM, Blogger Rufus II said...

9.2% Unemployment.

Would have been worse if a couple hundred thousand hadn't "Left" the Labor Force (gave up looking.)

The economy started slowing down when gasoline went over $3.25. It hit a brick wall at $3.50.

It's Now at $3.60, and heading for $3.75.

Them's the facts, Jack.

Meanwhile, we're paying farmers Not to plant 30 Million Acres.

We need to start, today, building an ethanol refinery in Every County in the United States.

If we can Guarantee a $16 Billion Loan for a Nuclear Power Plant, we can sure as hell guarantee a bunch of loans for cellulosic ethanol plants (especially since our problem is transportation fuel, not electricity.)

 
At 7/08/2011 11:10 AM, Blogger Spencer Weinstein said...

Rufus II - They are assembled in China. Of the $178.96 wholesale value of the iPhone, the value of the work done in China is only $6.50 or 3.6% of the total value. Where is all that other value being created and added? Japan: 34%, Germany: 17%, South Korea: 13%, The US: 6%...

So while China does the final manufacturing off an iPhone, most of the value is added from the components manufactured in other countries. The result is a much cheaper iPhone that people like me can afford. If the United States did all of the manufacturing for the iPhone it would cost thousands of dollars and only a few people would own them.

 
At 7/08/2011 11:20 AM, Blogger Methinks said...

why, it's almost as if no one man is smart enough to plan the entire economy...

has anyone told the president?


The economy? Nevermind that. The fool still doesn't understand he's not smart enough to make a pencil!

 
At 7/08/2011 11:26 AM, Blogger Ron H. said...

"has anyone told the president?"

I'm afraid he already knows.

 
At 7/08/2011 11:27 AM, Blogger Methinks said...

9.2% Unemployment.

Duh.

Every single firm that survived 2008-2009 is facing hugely increased regulatory compliance costs and uncertainty about what government is going to impose on it next.

Obamacare will increase the cost of hiring. Those regs haven't been written yet. Dodd-Frank will impose enormous costs. Those regs haven't even been written yet. The EPA, AICPA, FDA, Fed and the rest of the alphabet soup of government gestapo is all working hard to make sure that everyone employed by any of the firms they oversee do nothing of value and instead comply with their totally idiotic regulation all day.

Yeah....I just can't understand why companies are not eager to invest in more human capital. Or anything else, for that matter.

 
At 7/08/2011 11:30 AM, Blogger Ron H. said...

"We need to start, today, building an ethanol refinery in Every County in the United States.{"

Whenever I see a sentence that starts with something like "We need to...", I know that what follows is most likely collectivist bullshit.

 
At 7/08/2011 7:49 PM, Blogger Joe Lais said...

The "video" camera at minute 1:26 looks like a film based home movie camera. It even appears to have a hand wind up mechanism to load a spring to roll the film. Fun to see new words reaching back to describe old technologies because our frame of reference keeps changing. The opposite is when football teams talk about exchanging "film" when they have not used film since video tape recorders came out decades ago. It isn't even tape anymore. They have moved from video tape to digital. Technology is moving faster than our language.

 
At 7/08/2011 8:46 PM, Blogger juandos said...

Price of broadband access is going down?!?!

Really?!?!

 
At 7/11/2011 3:33 PM, Blogger Chief Provocateur said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 
At 7/11/2011 3:37 PM, Blogger Chief Provocateur said...

Yes, we need rich people who can invest and be early adopters of new technology. However, we do not need rich bankers and speculators who drive up the input costs of semi-rich small business owners who survive on thin margins. As you attack SocialISM you are stuck behind your "ism" as you can't see that certain super rich buy market advantages and control markets. I am not going to argue for Obama's socialism however, the super rich control too much capital and are moving it to places that hurt competition. I also agree there is too much regulation, but at the same time should I not want safe food and clean air so my children are safe. Get real. The only thing worse than government regulation is no government regulation. I think you should visit www.theamazingreset.blogspot.com to get data striped from ideology that will turn the economic of this country around. I think you need to do a little more research...

 
At 7/12/2011 10:20 PM, Blogger Brian Trushore said...

This comment has been removed by the author.

 

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