AMonger
Veteran Expediter
Reality Check - Adapt or Die (In the Unemployment Line)
Inbox
Gary North's Reality Check
* * * * * * * * * * * * Gold's Price
* * * * * http://GaryNorth.com/snip/300.htm
* * * * * * * * * * Goodbye, Social Security
* * * * * http://GaryNorth.com/snip/1029.htm
* * * * * * * * * * * * How to Subscribe
* * * * * http://dailyreckoning.com/get-reality/?r=milo
* Issue 1125 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * December 13, 2011
* * * * * * ADAPT OR DIE (IN THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE)
* * * *Adapt or die: this is a free market principle. It was
* expounded as a fundamental principle of society by Adam
* Smith and the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment.
* This idea was picked up by Erasmus Darwin and extended by
* his grandson, Charles, who applied it -- adapted it -- to
* biology.
* * * *The Scottish Enlightenment announced "adapt or die" as
* the basis of social progress. "Adapt or die" is a principle
* of liberty, they argued. It is applied most productively
* and beneficially on a free market, they concluded.
* * * *The crucial legal foundation of the free market is the
* right of private property: ownership. This implies that at
* the heart of free market liberty is the right of making
* exchanges: the right of disownership.
* * * *The crucial means of extending the right of making
* exchanges is price competition. Prices in a free market
* society fall as a result of increased production, So, how
* do producers find buyers for this increased production? In
* most cases, through price competition. This extends the
* free market to the masses.
* * * *Price competition outrages many existing sellers, who
* have not found ways to meet the competition. They try to
* keep their customers coming back, and new customers coming
* through the door, but as information spreads about better
* deals at lower prices, customers depart.
* * * *Sellers want to think of the free market as their
* personal market. They displaced their predecessors through
* price competition, but they resent upstarts who are trying
* to do the same thing to them. Having climbed up the ladder
* of economic success through price competition, they want to
* pull up that ladder by making price competition illegal.
* This begins by identifying it as immoral: a form of theft.
* AMAZON'S NEW APP
* * * *On Saturday, December 10, I sent out the following
* message as my free "Tip of the Week."
* * * * *One-day only, December 10: Amazon discounts of
* * * *5% per item, times 3, for a total of $15.
* * * * * * * * * *http://bit.ly/UpTo15Bucks
* * * * * So, here's the deal. Amazon is trying to get
* * * *people to use its Price Check app. It lets you go
* * * *into a retail store, take a picture of any item's
* * * *bar code with your cell phone, and check the
* * * *price of that item on Amazon. Retailers are
* * * *APPoplectic (irresistible).
* * * * * * * * * * *http://bit.ly/APPoplectic
* * * * * To get you to download the app today and use
* * * *it, Amazon is offering a one-day discount of 5%
* * * *per order, times 3 orders, up to $15. That's an
* * * *incentive to get you to shop. Here are two more
* * * *stories about this.
* * * * * * * * * * * http://bit.ly/uKOicP
* * * * * * * * * * * http://bit.ly/vjkb8v
* * * * * The idea is to get greater penetration for the
* * * *app by offering a deal. Also, it's to get you to
* * * *USE the app, not just download it.
* * * * * I call this very smart smart-phone app
* * * *marketing.
* * * * * If you own a mobile phone, and if you plan to
* * * *do some shopping today, download the app. You can
* * * *get delivery of the items before Christmas.
* * * * * * * * * *http://bit.ly/GNweeklytip
* * * *This tip was time-sensitive. If I did not mail it to
* my list that day, the opportunity would be lost.
* * * *Later in the afternoon, I received this reply.
* * * *I think Amazon's smartphone app is a terrible
* * * *idea. Amazon is asking people to go to other
* * * *stores (including small businesses), scan items
* * * *they want, and buy from Amazon instead. Big box
* * * *stores can absorb the impact, but it's also
* * * *robbing small businesses of valuable customers
* * * *and will be harmful to the economy. I can't
* * * *believe you would promote such a thing that would
* * * *merely save people a few dollars at the expense
* * * *of small business. You always have great ideas,
* * * *but this one is anything but.
* * * *Here is the cry of despair from a seller who is about
* to be displaced. He sees what is coming. He will not be
* able to compete. He identifies Amazon's offer as "robbing
* small business of valuable customers."
* * * *Excuse me? Robbing? This language implies that small
* businesses OWN their customers. Does he really mean that
* making them better offers is a form of theft? This is the
* implication of what he says...
* * * *The seller sees his customers as his birthright. For
* example, the seller of labor sees his job as his
* birthright. He can quit his job at any time, but he wants
* the state to prohibit his employer from firing him for any
* reason. Trade unions have always called on the state to
* prohibit employers from hiring replacements when the union
* goes on strike. What is the logic of this position? This:
* members of the union OWN these jobs. Replacements are
* STEALING these jobs. So, the unions call on the federal
* government to stop this theft. This is what the National
* Labor Relations Board was set up to do in the New Deal
* (1933-45). It has done this ever since.
* * * *Fortunately for the vast majority of American workers,
* who were always excluded from union membership, and who
* were paid lower wages as a direct result of unions'
* restrictions on entry, trade unions never had more than 30%
* of the labor force. Today, they have under 10%, and most of
* these are members of unions that were set up by government
* employees.
* * * *What broke the back of the union movement in the
* United States? One thing: price competition. The main
* strategy was this: companies build new plants in southern
* states, which had "right to work" laws. (These should be
* called "right to bid" laws.) They also moved plants off-
* shore to nations in which trade unions are weak or non-
* existent. Then they exported these goods back into the
* United States at low prices, forcing out of business
* companies that were saddled with trade union contracts and
* the NLRB. Union members have howled for 40 years about
* unfair competition. This means any competition that exists
* on a free market for labor.
* * * *Employers compete against employers. Workers compete
* against workers. Union members insist that employers
* compete against workers. They claim that employers have an
* unfair advantage. "Employers steal from the workers." But
* how could this be true? Employers hire workers. They need
* workers. They would go bankrupt without workers. So, what
* the unions really oppose is the existence of workers who
* offer employers a better deal. So, unions call for the
* government to defend unions, which restrict lower-priced
* workers, when 50% plus one of the existing employees vote
* for a union. The 49% are forced to join or quit. All non-
* union workers are forever shut out.
* * * *Then the employer goes bankrupt. He cannot compete
* with employers who hire non-union workers. The union
* members are forced into the non-union labor market. "O,
* woe! O, the unfairness of it!"
* * * *This is the universal cry of those workers in life, in
* any field, who discover that their customers are free
* agents who do not belong to them.
* * * *Freedom means free agency. It means the right to bid.
* It means the right to offer a better deal. It means that it
* is not theft to offer a better deal.
* CELL PHONE COMPETITION
* * * *My critic thinks that Amazon is stealing from local
* sellers. But is Amazon stealing? Or is it simply making a
* good deal to shoppers?
* * * *I am in direct marketing. I have been for 35 years.
* There are two questions that a direct-market seller must
* overcome in his advertising copy:
* * * * * * * * *Who says?
* * * * * * * * *So what?
* * * *Any direct market sales piece that does not overcome
* these two questions will fail.
* * * *I came out of academia in much the same way that Abram
* came out of Ur of the Chaldees. I found out early that the
* brighter students ask the same two questions.
* * * *So do brighter voters.
* * * *Let me apply this to local business. A local business
* has higher costs. The customer asks: "So what?" The
* business has to keep a showroom open. So what? It has to
* pay sellers on the showroom floor. So what? It has to pay
* sales taxes? So what?
* * * *The customer cares little or nothing about the costs
* of business. He cares about the price he has to pay for
* whatever he wants.
* * * *A local seller sees Amazon as competing unfairly. So
* what?
* * * *As a television viewer, I prefer to watch programs
* rather than advertisements. Yet I like ads more than most
* viewers do. I write ads, and I have studied ads for over 50
* years. When I was 10 years old, I wanted to write ads when
* I grew up. Yes, I'm kind of weird. At age 10 or 11, I came
* up with a slogan for Stopette, the first spray-on liquid
* deodorant, a slogan that Gillette discovered a decade
* later. Nevertheless, I prefer shows without ads.
* * * *For me, the digital recorder is one of the great
* inventions of all time. I can set it to record a show.
* Then, when I watch it at my convenience, I fast forward
* through the ads.
* * * *Think of the billions of dollars of wasted ad expenses
* that are imposed by TiVo and its competitors. The captive
* audiences are no longer captive. They are free to choose.
* They are free to choose to fast forward through
* commercials.
* * * *The ad agencies and the TV networks do not bother to
* cry, "unfair!" They would look silly. Besides, there is
* nothing they can do about it.
* * * *There is not much that a local store can do about
* smart phones and shopping apps, either. Technology does
* advance.
* * * *The store can remove the UPC bar codes from its
* products. That might help a little. But then it will cost
* more to maintain inventory control. It will slow down sales
* time. The seller wants the advantage of computerized
* inventory, but he does not want the loss of sales due to
* smart phone apps that let customers know who is selling
* goods cheaper.
* * * *This reminds me of the bicycle companies that demand
* that tariffs be placed on bikes made abroad, but who fight
* steel tariffs that make manufacturing costs higher.
* * * *Established sellers want to milk the system. But they
* also want to restrict upstart new sellers' access to the
* teats.
* THE FLOW OF INFORMATION
* * * *The flow of information on the World Wide Web is
* beyond anything conceivable 20 years ago. It is changing
* the world in every area of life. It is undermining
* established governments, businesses, and guilds. This is to
* the benefit of those who pay the bills.
* * * *The biggest casualties are the world's postal
* services. They are unionized. They are monopolies. They are
* the poster children of government-restricted services. They
* are going bust. Email is killing them.
* * * *So what?
* * * *They hike prices. They get less revenue. They reduce
* services. They get less revenue. They cannot find ways to
* stop the spread of digital mail. One by one, nation by
* nation, they are shrinking.
* * * *Another casualty: the Yellow Pages. Once upon a time,
* they had almost no competition. They did not offer price
* breaks. They did not offer the normal 15% discount to ad
* agencies. They did not innovate. Today, they are not in a
* position to impose prices on business owners. Their
* revenues are falling. Google lets us search for a product
* by zip code. It offers maps with those little tagged
* markers. We can read ratings on-line. Result:
* * * *Yellow Pages publishers worldwide are gaining
* * * *traction with new digital products, slightly
* * * *offsetting declines from the traditional print
* * * *versions, according to the newly released sixth
* * * *edition of BIA/Kelsey's "Global Yellow Pages "
* * * *report. BIA/Kelsey expects revenues from print
* * * *and online directories to decline globally from
* * * *$23.4 billion in 2011 to $22.0 billion in 2015,
* * * *representing a compound annual growth rate of
* * * *-1.5 percent. . . .
* * * *By 2015, 53 percent of global Yellow Pages
* * * *revenues will be digital, compared with 29
* * * *percent in 2011. Some of the world's largest
* * * *directory organizations, including Yell Group and
* * * *Seat Pagine Gialle, are setting a much more
* * * *aggressive course, projecting roughly an 80/20
* * * *balance of revenues favoring digital by 2015.
* * * *Markets that are currently or will be majority
* * * *digital by the end of 2011 include Denmark,
* * * *Finland, France, Italy, Norway and Sweden.
* * * *In short, here is the rule of survival in a free
* market: "Adapt or die." Innovate or die. Meet customer
* demand or die.
* * * *This flow of information has only just begun. As
* tablets and smart phones get cheaper, the number of users
* will increase. In a decade, the world will be different. In
* 40 or 50 years, it will be unrecognizable. Why? Because
* most of today's establishments will be ancient history. The
* gatekeepers are standing at the gates, but the walls are
* crumbling. I call this the Jericho process.
* * * *Price competition is the heart of this process. Here
* are a few laws of the Jericho process:
* * * *1. Bandwidth will get cheaper.
* * * *2. Core memory will get cheaper.
* * * *3. Chip speeds will get faster.
* * * *4. The number of users will increase.
* * * *5. Price competition will get stiffer.
* * * *This leads to the central law of our civilization:
* information costs will decline exponentially. They have
* since the 1890 U.S. census. The key article on this is here:
* http://bit.ly/AcceleratingReturns.
* -------------------------------------------------------
* Obama’s Burning Shame Revealed Here...
* This is the unspoken, burning shame that could kill Obama’s presidency...
* It could spell the end of his short political career...
* It’s all revealed in this extremely urgent and controversial documentary report.
* http://clicks.dailyreckoning.com//t/AQ/AAh0oA/AAiEXQ/AARjVQ/AQ/AvZ4LA/CNYl
* -------------------------------------------------------
* CONCLUSION
* * * *At the heart of the free market social order is this
* principle: the right of exchange. This implies the right to
* bid. The right to bid produces a universal response: price
* competition. The free market extends its dominance by means
* of price competition. Price competition is at the heart of
* the extension of liberty.
* * * *So, use those smart phone aps. Use Google. Look for a
* better deal. As a shopper, you would be wise to learn the
* tools of information-gathering.
* * * *When you see what deals are out there, you will see
* that the flow of information is increasing. The offers are
* increasing. Price competition is increasing.
* * * *This should lead you to a conclusion as a producer,
* meaning a seller: either adapt or die. You do not own your
* customers, any more than you, as a customer, are owned. You
* are a free agent. So are they. You are looking for better
* deals. So are they.
* * * *You can stand on the edge of this revolution and wring
* your hand. You can cry out: "Unfair competition!" This will
* not save you from extinction. It will only slow you down.
Inbox
Gary North's Reality Check
* * * * * * * * * * * * Gold's Price
* * * * * http://GaryNorth.com/snip/300.htm
* * * * * * * * * * Goodbye, Social Security
* * * * * http://GaryNorth.com/snip/1029.htm
* * * * * * * * * * * * How to Subscribe
* * * * * http://dailyreckoning.com/get-reality/?r=milo
* Issue 1125 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * December 13, 2011
* * * * * * ADAPT OR DIE (IN THE UNEMPLOYMENT LINE)
* * * *Adapt or die: this is a free market principle. It was
* expounded as a fundamental principle of society by Adam
* Smith and the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment.
* This idea was picked up by Erasmus Darwin and extended by
* his grandson, Charles, who applied it -- adapted it -- to
* biology.
* * * *The Scottish Enlightenment announced "adapt or die" as
* the basis of social progress. "Adapt or die" is a principle
* of liberty, they argued. It is applied most productively
* and beneficially on a free market, they concluded.
* * * *The crucial legal foundation of the free market is the
* right of private property: ownership. This implies that at
* the heart of free market liberty is the right of making
* exchanges: the right of disownership.
* * * *The crucial means of extending the right of making
* exchanges is price competition. Prices in a free market
* society fall as a result of increased production, So, how
* do producers find buyers for this increased production? In
* most cases, through price competition. This extends the
* free market to the masses.
* * * *Price competition outrages many existing sellers, who
* have not found ways to meet the competition. They try to
* keep their customers coming back, and new customers coming
* through the door, but as information spreads about better
* deals at lower prices, customers depart.
* * * *Sellers want to think of the free market as their
* personal market. They displaced their predecessors through
* price competition, but they resent upstarts who are trying
* to do the same thing to them. Having climbed up the ladder
* of economic success through price competition, they want to
* pull up that ladder by making price competition illegal.
* This begins by identifying it as immoral: a form of theft.
* AMAZON'S NEW APP
* * * *On Saturday, December 10, I sent out the following
* message as my free "Tip of the Week."
* * * * *One-day only, December 10: Amazon discounts of
* * * *5% per item, times 3, for a total of $15.
* * * * * * * * * *http://bit.ly/UpTo15Bucks
* * * * * So, here's the deal. Amazon is trying to get
* * * *people to use its Price Check app. It lets you go
* * * *into a retail store, take a picture of any item's
* * * *bar code with your cell phone, and check the
* * * *price of that item on Amazon. Retailers are
* * * *APPoplectic (irresistible).
* * * * * * * * * * *http://bit.ly/APPoplectic
* * * * * To get you to download the app today and use
* * * *it, Amazon is offering a one-day discount of 5%
* * * *per order, times 3 orders, up to $15. That's an
* * * *incentive to get you to shop. Here are two more
* * * *stories about this.
* * * * * * * * * * * http://bit.ly/uKOicP
* * * * * * * * * * * http://bit.ly/vjkb8v
* * * * * The idea is to get greater penetration for the
* * * *app by offering a deal. Also, it's to get you to
* * * *USE the app, not just download it.
* * * * * I call this very smart smart-phone app
* * * *marketing.
* * * * * If you own a mobile phone, and if you plan to
* * * *do some shopping today, download the app. You can
* * * *get delivery of the items before Christmas.
* * * * * * * * * *http://bit.ly/GNweeklytip
* * * *This tip was time-sensitive. If I did not mail it to
* my list that day, the opportunity would be lost.
* * * *Later in the afternoon, I received this reply.
* * * *I think Amazon's smartphone app is a terrible
* * * *idea. Amazon is asking people to go to other
* * * *stores (including small businesses), scan items
* * * *they want, and buy from Amazon instead. Big box
* * * *stores can absorb the impact, but it's also
* * * *robbing small businesses of valuable customers
* * * *and will be harmful to the economy. I can't
* * * *believe you would promote such a thing that would
* * * *merely save people a few dollars at the expense
* * * *of small business. You always have great ideas,
* * * *but this one is anything but.
* * * *Here is the cry of despair from a seller who is about
* to be displaced. He sees what is coming. He will not be
* able to compete. He identifies Amazon's offer as "robbing
* small business of valuable customers."
* * * *Excuse me? Robbing? This language implies that small
* businesses OWN their customers. Does he really mean that
* making them better offers is a form of theft? This is the
* implication of what he says...
* * * *The seller sees his customers as his birthright. For
* example, the seller of labor sees his job as his
* birthright. He can quit his job at any time, but he wants
* the state to prohibit his employer from firing him for any
* reason. Trade unions have always called on the state to
* prohibit employers from hiring replacements when the union
* goes on strike. What is the logic of this position? This:
* members of the union OWN these jobs. Replacements are
* STEALING these jobs. So, the unions call on the federal
* government to stop this theft. This is what the National
* Labor Relations Board was set up to do in the New Deal
* (1933-45). It has done this ever since.
* * * *Fortunately for the vast majority of American workers,
* who were always excluded from union membership, and who
* were paid lower wages as a direct result of unions'
* restrictions on entry, trade unions never had more than 30%
* of the labor force. Today, they have under 10%, and most of
* these are members of unions that were set up by government
* employees.
* * * *What broke the back of the union movement in the
* United States? One thing: price competition. The main
* strategy was this: companies build new plants in southern
* states, which had "right to work" laws. (These should be
* called "right to bid" laws.) They also moved plants off-
* shore to nations in which trade unions are weak or non-
* existent. Then they exported these goods back into the
* United States at low prices, forcing out of business
* companies that were saddled with trade union contracts and
* the NLRB. Union members have howled for 40 years about
* unfair competition. This means any competition that exists
* on a free market for labor.
* * * *Employers compete against employers. Workers compete
* against workers. Union members insist that employers
* compete against workers. They claim that employers have an
* unfair advantage. "Employers steal from the workers." But
* how could this be true? Employers hire workers. They need
* workers. They would go bankrupt without workers. So, what
* the unions really oppose is the existence of workers who
* offer employers a better deal. So, unions call for the
* government to defend unions, which restrict lower-priced
* workers, when 50% plus one of the existing employees vote
* for a union. The 49% are forced to join or quit. All non-
* union workers are forever shut out.
* * * *Then the employer goes bankrupt. He cannot compete
* with employers who hire non-union workers. The union
* members are forced into the non-union labor market. "O,
* woe! O, the unfairness of it!"
* * * *This is the universal cry of those workers in life, in
* any field, who discover that their customers are free
* agents who do not belong to them.
* * * *Freedom means free agency. It means the right to bid.
* It means the right to offer a better deal. It means that it
* is not theft to offer a better deal.
* CELL PHONE COMPETITION
* * * *My critic thinks that Amazon is stealing from local
* sellers. But is Amazon stealing? Or is it simply making a
* good deal to shoppers?
* * * *I am in direct marketing. I have been for 35 years.
* There are two questions that a direct-market seller must
* overcome in his advertising copy:
* * * * * * * * *Who says?
* * * * * * * * *So what?
* * * *Any direct market sales piece that does not overcome
* these two questions will fail.
* * * *I came out of academia in much the same way that Abram
* came out of Ur of the Chaldees. I found out early that the
* brighter students ask the same two questions.
* * * *So do brighter voters.
* * * *Let me apply this to local business. A local business
* has higher costs. The customer asks: "So what?" The
* business has to keep a showroom open. So what? It has to
* pay sellers on the showroom floor. So what? It has to pay
* sales taxes? So what?
* * * *The customer cares little or nothing about the costs
* of business. He cares about the price he has to pay for
* whatever he wants.
* * * *A local seller sees Amazon as competing unfairly. So
* what?
* * * *As a television viewer, I prefer to watch programs
* rather than advertisements. Yet I like ads more than most
* viewers do. I write ads, and I have studied ads for over 50
* years. When I was 10 years old, I wanted to write ads when
* I grew up. Yes, I'm kind of weird. At age 10 or 11, I came
* up with a slogan for Stopette, the first spray-on liquid
* deodorant, a slogan that Gillette discovered a decade
* later. Nevertheless, I prefer shows without ads.
* * * *For me, the digital recorder is one of the great
* inventions of all time. I can set it to record a show.
* Then, when I watch it at my convenience, I fast forward
* through the ads.
* * * *Think of the billions of dollars of wasted ad expenses
* that are imposed by TiVo and its competitors. The captive
* audiences are no longer captive. They are free to choose.
* They are free to choose to fast forward through
* commercials.
* * * *The ad agencies and the TV networks do not bother to
* cry, "unfair!" They would look silly. Besides, there is
* nothing they can do about it.
* * * *There is not much that a local store can do about
* smart phones and shopping apps, either. Technology does
* advance.
* * * *The store can remove the UPC bar codes from its
* products. That might help a little. But then it will cost
* more to maintain inventory control. It will slow down sales
* time. The seller wants the advantage of computerized
* inventory, but he does not want the loss of sales due to
* smart phone apps that let customers know who is selling
* goods cheaper.
* * * *This reminds me of the bicycle companies that demand
* that tariffs be placed on bikes made abroad, but who fight
* steel tariffs that make manufacturing costs higher.
* * * *Established sellers want to milk the system. But they
* also want to restrict upstart new sellers' access to the
* teats.
* THE FLOW OF INFORMATION
* * * *The flow of information on the World Wide Web is
* beyond anything conceivable 20 years ago. It is changing
* the world in every area of life. It is undermining
* established governments, businesses, and guilds. This is to
* the benefit of those who pay the bills.
* * * *The biggest casualties are the world's postal
* services. They are unionized. They are monopolies. They are
* the poster children of government-restricted services. They
* are going bust. Email is killing them.
* * * *So what?
* * * *They hike prices. They get less revenue. They reduce
* services. They get less revenue. They cannot find ways to
* stop the spread of digital mail. One by one, nation by
* nation, they are shrinking.
* * * *Another casualty: the Yellow Pages. Once upon a time,
* they had almost no competition. They did not offer price
* breaks. They did not offer the normal 15% discount to ad
* agencies. They did not innovate. Today, they are not in a
* position to impose prices on business owners. Their
* revenues are falling. Google lets us search for a product
* by zip code. It offers maps with those little tagged
* markers. We can read ratings on-line. Result:
* * * *Yellow Pages publishers worldwide are gaining
* * * *traction with new digital products, slightly
* * * *offsetting declines from the traditional print
* * * *versions, according to the newly released sixth
* * * *edition of BIA/Kelsey's "Global Yellow Pages "
* * * *report. BIA/Kelsey expects revenues from print
* * * *and online directories to decline globally from
* * * *$23.4 billion in 2011 to $22.0 billion in 2015,
* * * *representing a compound annual growth rate of
* * * *-1.5 percent. . . .
* * * *By 2015, 53 percent of global Yellow Pages
* * * *revenues will be digital, compared with 29
* * * *percent in 2011. Some of the world's largest
* * * *directory organizations, including Yell Group and
* * * *Seat Pagine Gialle, are setting a much more
* * * *aggressive course, projecting roughly an 80/20
* * * *balance of revenues favoring digital by 2015.
* * * *Markets that are currently or will be majority
* * * *digital by the end of 2011 include Denmark,
* * * *Finland, France, Italy, Norway and Sweden.
* * * *In short, here is the rule of survival in a free
* market: "Adapt or die." Innovate or die. Meet customer
* demand or die.
* * * *This flow of information has only just begun. As
* tablets and smart phones get cheaper, the number of users
* will increase. In a decade, the world will be different. In
* 40 or 50 years, it will be unrecognizable. Why? Because
* most of today's establishments will be ancient history. The
* gatekeepers are standing at the gates, but the walls are
* crumbling. I call this the Jericho process.
* * * *Price competition is the heart of this process. Here
* are a few laws of the Jericho process:
* * * *1. Bandwidth will get cheaper.
* * * *2. Core memory will get cheaper.
* * * *3. Chip speeds will get faster.
* * * *4. The number of users will increase.
* * * *5. Price competition will get stiffer.
* * * *This leads to the central law of our civilization:
* information costs will decline exponentially. They have
* since the 1890 U.S. census. The key article on this is here:
* http://bit.ly/AcceleratingReturns.
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* CONCLUSION
* * * *At the heart of the free market social order is this
* principle: the right of exchange. This implies the right to
* bid. The right to bid produces a universal response: price
* competition. The free market extends its dominance by means
* of price competition. Price competition is at the heart of
* the extension of liberty.
* * * *So, use those smart phone aps. Use Google. Look for a
* better deal. As a shopper, you would be wise to learn the
* tools of information-gathering.
* * * *When you see what deals are out there, you will see
* that the flow of information is increasing. The offers are
* increasing. Price competition is increasing.
* * * *This should lead you to a conclusion as a producer,
* meaning a seller: either adapt or die. You do not own your
* customers, any more than you, as a customer, are owned. You
* are a free agent. So are they. You are looking for better
* deals. So are they.
* * * *You can stand on the edge of this revolution and wring
* your hand. You can cry out: "Unfair competition!" This will
* not save you from extinction. It will only slow you down.