[extropy-chat] Re: Ethics and evolution

[Eugen Leitl]

On Mon, Sep 05, 2005 at 09:01:01PM -0700, spike wrote:

> They would raise prices if they were not afraid of
> losing sales to competitors.  The gas stations are

They won't lose sales if the competition doesn't
do the same. Mandatory algorithms used by station
operators (not owners) compute their prices to
adapt to their competitors. The delay is usually
a day, or less.

Most people cannot skip refuelling, and most won't
go broke over the increase, so they keep buying.

> speculating that they will sell every drop, even 
> with inflated prices.  I see no foul in that.  I

Do you think monopolies are good for customer?
The market has an intrinsic drive to favour 
monopolies.

> am always wary of any suggestion that excess profit
> is somehow unethical or unreasonable, unless there
> are actual lives at stake.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a>
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