-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 On Monday 30 November 2009, Jay P Hailey was heard to say: > Okay. I was listening to the Frontline podcast
Danger, Will Robinson! Frontline = serious socialism. Keep that in mind. > A retired big-wig of Providian described how the ads and offers > were tailored to take advantage of unwary consumers. Caveat emptor. > "The Free Market is a tool for forcing down profit margins" Indeed. > In one case we see cheesy credit card companies uses hooks and > crooks, deceptive advertising and other things to increase their > profit margins at the expense of unwary consumers Microsoft also comes to mind. > Where is the other hand here. In a free market, someone should > have realized that they could undersell Bat Meat credit cards by > slicing their own profit margin and capturing market share? Ah! An "educated" consumer of products buys cheaper, although the price never really reaches 0. Even Linux "costs" time to install and use. An "educated" consumer of credit card services does that by not carrying a balance AT ALL. The percentage rate is irrelevant if there is no interest. I haven't paid interest on my credit card since 1986 when I missed a payment due to moving. I haven't had an annual fee either, because I will not contract with a company that charges one. > Where was the "We won't screw yoou in the fine print" credit card > provider? When that becomes a selling point, that is what will be advertised. What sells right now is "easy", not "cheap". > What prevented the profit-margin-per-unit reduction mechanism from > working in the credit card industry since 1980? Again, it has. I pay _nothing_ other than the % on the costs of products that is built in paying for the service. In fact, I have a "cash back rewards" service, so the card is actually paying me back some $300/year. What will drive down profit margins in the "credit card" industry is when people are educated to not over-spend. That will happen, in time. They certainly won't learn that lesson in public school. It takes all of 10 minutes of actual education, and they just can't afford that. Curt- - -- The Magistrate, enrobed in taxes, condemns the thief in stolen rags. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux) iQEVAwUBSxP0CS9Y35yItIgBAQImXgf/RDAHi07viSLJfe4pt7VZgV2YXwUo8cOi lWPaQ4KE0ajazXz7l4ypQRXtHL1ocDffUQoY+NUpL62FFpwSq35sa0Y3d26++/sO 8zcQYNWQZdN3E4vyaNJDM9jOjpLpthKV9Gg4+aU0VBzchI0saOwYbjpiCDyaUR8p ItsDJCCT0QqTtmoo66aZ3cXIqFJPmHHfL7Oep3ZeNW8RX/Sh/pdfCqgkrL7FETJX xpXdr1uI1hfQj01zxYc6IFaFniTrZighrrRakO1rx6UZ2gnc62zf2D3dFb5tHEM9 Mr4rvWPVfMStk1yFQsqxfkMdV0m4JxwziNFwNLJUcCW79gX3TjndOw== =r2SF -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
