Should selling below cost be illegal?

[ZenOps]

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-trade-idUSKBN17208O

Never quite understood how people see it as a really bad thing.

I mean, if there was an exceptional year of grain harvest and I only use robots to cook, and I just got a shipment of other foodstuffs that I want to make space for in a small warehouse, why shouldn't I be able to sell a loaf of bread for 20 cents before it goes bad?

White people seem to have take great issue with it, basically preferring or requiring the bread be burned or destroyed below a certain price. They also take issue when a human isn't making money off it (automation, robots do everything) especially in places like France.

But seriously, more is getting done with less people for less expensive.. Is everyone a luddite nowadays?

[zhao]

I make tools and widgets. You make widgets. Barriers to entry onmaking widgets are very high. I'm going to survive off tools and sell widgets at a huge loss so everyone buys my widgets and you go out of business. This is awesome for me because as soon as you go out of business I'll have a monopoly and can charge whatever I want, which will be a lot. I will also stop r and d on my widgets because why bother since everyone will buy them no matter how shitty and expensive?

Do you still believe your point of view is correct now?

[speedog]

White people? From the article you linked to, are not Germany and Ireland basically viewed as countries that are white as per your determination of color? Or are Germans and Irish of a different shade of white? Please do explain your stance further, oh great ZenOps.

[ExtraSlow]

I blame whitey.

[ZenOps]

Originally posted by ExtraSlow
I blame whitey.

I'm with you.

[ZenOps]

And not to be racist/sexist, but whites seem to change their mind based on what the product is.

A Used car salesman taking a $50 hit on a junker just to get it off the lot, to free up the space for a Ferrari, seems perfectly acceptable.

But a loaf of bread below cost? Unforgiveable jailable offense. I Blame Galen Weston.

[Xtrema]

Whatever market will bear. People still buys Apple product or luxury cars knowing that they have high margins.

[pheoxs]

Originally posted by zhao
I make tools and widgets. You make widgets. Barriers to entry onmaking widgets are very high. I'm going to survive off tools and sell widgets at a huge loss so everyone buys my widgets and you go out of business. This is awesome for me because as soon as you go out of business I'll have a monopoly and can charge whatever I want, which will be a lot. I will also stop r and d on my widgets because why bother since everyone will buy them no matter how shitty and expensive?

Do you still believe your point of view is correct now?

But then someone can enter the market and just sell tools and compete with you on price and if they aren't losing money on widgets they'll come ahead of you and grow.

[blownz]

I am white and don't get why this is a white person thing... :dunno:

[Gestalt]

Do you believe in free markets, or centrally planned one?

Free markets say anything goes, centrally planned ones regulate stuff. Two ends of the stick, pick your place.

And of course thrifty countries will have a trade surplus, and consumption driven ones will have a deficit.

[ZenOps]

Originally posted by blownz
I am white and don't get why this is a white person thing... :dunno:

Because Trump. The USA and most European nations do not produce exportable goods for inexpensive or in any appreciable quantity. The USA as are most euro nations are pretty much 90% services and consumption based economy.

Targetting sellers that occasionally have to "push" goods is almost entirely affecting only Asian nations negatively. Punish the producers and the warehousers.

Trump is not so much encouraging production in the US by positive reinforcement, he is doing it by shooting the kneecaps of the opposition. Trump seems to want the US to go back to the coalmines and start knitting sweaters, instead of serving coffee to each other - valid but possibly misguided if no one wants to do it. Trump could be making a huge mistake that its what people actually want, cheaper energy bills and quality sweaters, or served coffee and lapdances - the choice is a tough one.

Canada GST would be considered punishing the consumer.

[HiTempguy1]

Originally posted by pheoxs


But then someone can enter the market and just sell tools and compete with you on price and if they aren't losing money on widgets they'll come ahead of you and grow.

You missed the part where it is high cost to enter the market.

Try motorsports tires. All the manufacturers want you to buy containers (400-500 tires per container, wholesale of lets say $150).

Not just a business you can bust into :dunno: And if a company were to employ loss leader tactics for selling below cost or even at cost (say motorsport tire sales are not their main business), unless your product was clearly superior in quality (unlikely), you would be wasting your money on inventory that will never sell.

And when a couple businesses get burned by this, everyone heads for the exit and a monopoly or duopoly forms.

In my time racing, I've actually seen this exact thing happen TWICE. Right when I got started (the NA market went from 6 or 8 gravel tire manufacturers to 2) and its just happening again now.

[ZenOps]

I'm losing respect for the US by the minute.

Seriously, if you want to be great - win on a level playing field. Don't be Tonya Harding. If you produce great things that people want to spend money on, they will come naturally.

I'd suggest boycotting US products for unfair trade practices, but realistically there is nothing I buy from the US anyhow.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/trade-probe-trump-canada-1.4049602

There is a $724 Billion a year trade imbalance to the USA, because *maybe* you can't export coffee service and lapdances. Jeebus, USA blames everyone else for the way the USA decided to live (no one forced you to lend $53 million to Kanye)

[schurchill39]

I don't have anything to contribute besides to say if this were about anyone but "whites" we'd all be dubbed racists.

[ZenOps]

As to Trump supporters, I'm reverse racist.

Not to oversimplify, but his core supporters are central US white landowners tend to want things like protectionist policies so that they can sell their wheat for $500 per ton instead of $140 per ton. But that isn't really going to change an international trade imbalance. All that's going to do is force more nations outside the US to buy even less, and impoverish the citizens within the country that have to pay more.

And not to forget, the leader of the US declared bankruptcy four times and deferred losses of $915 million over 19 years...

If Trump does pass the trade tariffs, it could very well propel the rest of the world to new heights - and completely remove the USA from the rest of the world, like North Korea. Its hard to know right away which way it will go.