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Old Jul 8, 2008, 03:58 pm   #18 (permalink)
ThoughtCriminal
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Posts: 1,372
Quote:
Quote by: tivodan1116 View Post
Except that you still have money to spend on a product you need, and presumably so do other members of the class being rejected by the store, which creates a demand for a store that would not reject them.

Furthermore, as Kame pointed out, such a store would also draw disfavor from everyone who does not agree with such a practice.

Finally, merchants still can and do reject people on whatever basis they wish. The difference is in so-called "public accommodations", which not all businesses fall under.
I believe I addressed this in the message above, so you can respond to that if you like.

Quote:
Quote by: tivodan1116 View Post
Irrational entities generally fail in a market system since they do not respond properly to immutable laws of economics.
Yeah, the theory is that, over the very long term, the invisible hand of long-term self-interest will punish these irrational entities. Nonetheless, market failures do exist and can be quite long-lasting. This is particularly true in markets where share guarantees more share, such as the eBay model. Of course, even if this particular irrational entity eventually succumbs, the long term is too long. As one economist said, in the long term, we're all dead.

Quote:
Quote by: tivodan1116 View Post
Well, the rationale behind those requirements is one of monopoly or near-monopoly.

You mentioned the market working when there are "limitless" options... In a person's choice of where to post data on the internet, there ARE virtually limitless options, limitless for all practical purposes. The location of data becomes unimportant when the capability of search engines is taken into account. Search engines will locate the NAMBLA website, on their presumably censorship-free ISP, as easily as they locate the Christian Coalition.

The technology of the internet makes regulation nearly pointless and usually ineffective.
Not even. A local oligopoly suffices.

Search engines favor popular sites, which is why Wikipedia's entry on foosball swims to the top of the list while my scholarly dissertation, despite its obvious merit, fails to break the top 100.

As in physical real estate, the three keys to the Internet are location, location and location. This is also why nobody responds to my foosball monograph, but there have been edit wars over the WP article.

TC
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