buybuydandavis comments on Open Thread, Aug 29. - Sept 5. 2016 - Less Wrong

6 Post author: Elo 29 August 2016 02:28AM

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Comment author: Clarity 03 September 2016 05:48:04AM -1 points [-]

My girlfriend and I disagreed about focussing on poor vs richer countries in terms of doing good. She made an argument along the lines of:

'In poorer countries the consumer goods are targeted to that class of poor people so making difference in inequality in places like Australia is more important than in poor countries because they are deprived of a supply of goods because the consumer culture is targeted towards the wealthier middle class.'

What do you make of it?

Comment author: buybuydandavis 04 September 2016 08:19:42PM *  0 points [-]

I think the regulatory targeting of government enabled shake downs toward the wealthier middle class is much more of an issue. The wealthy middle class can afford to put up with more than the poor.

Though they try, it's hard to market segment your shakedowns, so the poor are often just priced out of the market.

Market segmentation by price/quality/status works just fine where there is a free market. If you've got the money to buy it, goods will come.