tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14963913.post4384040877852007376..comments2023-10-27T20:27:57.900-04:00Comments on Kid Dynamite's World: More Ignorant Consumers - Symptoms of the Same ProblemKid Dynamitehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17475987512856310577noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14963913.post-31015658489527440192009-12-22T15:39:28.888-05:002009-12-22T15:39:28.888-05:00Kid
Indeed, the lack of critical thinking in our ...Kid<br /><br />Indeed, the lack of critical thinking in our populace is depressing. It shows in all kinds of gullibility, credulousness, and yes, downright stupidity.<br /><br />And the marketers, politicans and scammers (sorry for the redundancy) take full advantage.Onlookerhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07742157936955263465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14963913.post-14753025097898055782009-12-22T11:04:58.287-05:002009-12-22T11:04:58.287-05:00@ChildBoomsticks: see, if you're iceland, and...@ChildBoomsticks: see, if you're iceland, and you bought some US subprime mortgage backed CDO's because someone told you they were a good deal and you really didn't understand what you were buying, well then, you didn't do your fiduciary duty, and you should be fired and held accountable....<br /><br />the fact that everyone underestimated the likelihood of default does not absolve the buyers of crappy paper of their responsibility.<br /><br />if your small european country bought anything because someone else told them it was a good deal, they deserve whatever is coming to them. just like how if i buy a stock because it's rated STRONG BUY by Goldman Sachs, i have no recourse against them if they are wrong.<br /><br />the ONLY exception to this may lie with culpability on the part of the ratings agencies - who demonstrated gross negligence, in my opinion.Kid Dynamitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17475987512856310577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14963913.post-72012328359662710482009-12-22T10:52:14.057-05:002009-12-22T10:52:14.057-05:00Not sure if I'm extrapolating your point here....Not sure if I'm extrapolating your point here...but making an analogy from charging a premium on a package (with one layer of opaqueness) to the financial industry (based on 1000's of layers of opaqueness) is a bold one indeed!!<br /><br />Say I were a an investor for a small European country, and I did read the fine print to discover that it was all stochastic calculus. I then looked at the genius financial wizard and he said "there's only a 1/1,000,000,000,000 chance this doesn't pay off...it's nearly a sure thing", I guess it would TOTALLY be my fault for being uneducated when it blew up.<br /><br />Sorry dude, but misleading people by purposely obfuscating information is simply greed. Not that there's anything wrong with that...Child Boomsitcksnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14963913.post-88630823801055308812009-12-22T09:11:13.535-05:002009-12-22T09:11:13.535-05:00yes - just to be clear, this post takes issue with...yes - just to be clear, this post takes issue with the fact that the NY Times reporter seems to think there's something wrong with charging a premium, not with the fact that the UPS store is charging a premiumKid Dynamitehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17475987512856310577noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14963913.post-37314452317164959842009-12-22T09:05:04.858-05:002009-12-22T09:05:04.858-05:00Nothing to see here. Consumers are choosing to pay...Nothing to see here. Consumers are choosing to pay a surcharge to the UPS store, because they have decided that the surcharge is less than the search costs and costs of waiting in line at the Post Office.maynardGkeynesnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14963913.post-82048250411016795572009-12-21T20:53:00.211-05:002009-12-21T20:53:00.211-05:00When you drop your letter into the mailbox in that...When you drop your letter into the mailbox in that store do you pay an extra fee?<br />It probably makes sense to have the usps services as a loss leader and have super high margins on the packaging (maybe even under usps to be the lost cost option!).SMnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14963913.post-51411298058972212072009-12-21T18:08:37.982-05:002009-12-21T18:08:37.982-05:00H. L. Mencken: Nobody ever went broke underestima...H. L. Mencken: Nobody ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American peopleYangabangahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01602946300256374843noreply@blogger.com