Even is the labor costs are identical, the second person has an advantage in the research(they have a working model) so their research is much less expensive and time consuming, so they have lower sunk costs and can thus have a lower sales price because they have no need to recoup as much research costs.
Whatever the other mechanisms are, not allowing someone an opportunity to recoup as much of their investment in research will make research a less economically viable option. (unless of course you are a gadgeteer, but even then another gadgeteer could still under-cut you) On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 4:18 PM, Knapp <[email protected]> wrote: > On Fri, Feb 27, 2009 at 10:45 PM, Travis Watkins <[email protected]> wrote: >> They don't need them, just some under-paid workers so that they can >> start making cheap knock-offs(or even exact duplicates) and drive you >> out of business before you actually start making a profit on your >> nifty new gadget > > Cheep labor posits a world with vast inequalities. It would be much > harder on a world that was more homogeneous or honorable or did not > have mass transit of goods or even a world where the first maker would > simply kill the second. Many of your assumptions are only based on > your home county and what you are used to. > -- > Douglas E Knapp > > Why do we live? > _______________________________________________ > GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> > http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l > -- The man that holds fast to his bitterness will eventually be consumed by it, but if you let it go, your arms will be free to seize the glory that is life. -Terwin _______________________________________________ GurpsNet-L mailing list <[email protected]> http://mail.sjgames.com/mailman/listinfo/gurpsnet-l
