Re: [Leica] Comments on a BD Colen statement & PMA

["Jack Herron" <jherron@theriver.com>]

Nathan,
    No offense intended, but it must be interesting to work in a field where
moral concepts like fairness are meaningless.
    However, although economics may find the concept of fairness meaningless
in the broad market, it has a specific meaning in this narrow context, that
of a single proprietorship.  In this case, a fair price is one which the
proprietor (Tom) feels adequately compensates him for the effort and capital
involved, and does not garner him such a disproportionate profit as to make
him feel that he is taking "unfair" advantage of fellow Leica users.
    Several things pull this example from your classroom, textbook economics
situation.  Since it is one (1) human being making this judgement, personal
input becomes unavoidable, and his rapport with his clients also exceeds
that of, say, Ford, whose only interest in their clients is profit.
    In this case it also appears that the shortage of product is more the
result of poor health and personal problems than any broader market
concerns.
    It has been stated that Leica has much higher costs.  This is, of
course, ofuscation and little more.  Of course they do, as any mass
production operation, in the agregate must.  But the cost per unit is much
lower, and it is this datum which has the greater bearing on final price.
By far, the most expensive way to produce anything is in a single shop.
Mass productions sole justification is to lower the cost of the individual
unit.  A Geo would cost about $100,000 if built in this fashion.
    We are left with the fact that apparently Leica produces for less, and
charges more.  Only extreme inefficiency and incompetence could result in
their mass production techiniques creating the winders for more than it
costs Tom.  We are left with the conclusion that Leica screws you on the
price, because it can.  Such is the lot of the collector.
    Over a decade ago, we suffered a hurricane which wrought great
destruction in southern Florida.  Opportunists sold water to desperate
victims for $20.00 a gallon.  Although academic economics may find this
justifiable, most moral humans find themselves making value judgements about
this kind of behaviour.
Jack Herron

Tucson, AZ 85710
520 885-6933
- ----- Original Message -----
From: "Nathan Wajsman (private)" <nathanw@bluewin.ch>
To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 1:47 PM
Subject: Re: [Leica] Comments on a BD Colen statement & PMA


> What is a "fair" price? Nebulous concepts like that are of little use in
> practice. That is why economists never talk about fair prices; rather,
> we talk about market-clearing prices, i.e. prices at which supply and
> demand are in balance. If there is a shortage of something, it means
> that the price is below the market-clearing level (e.g. Tom's
> Rapidwinders) and if there is a glut, then the price is above that level
> (e.g. telecommunications capacity at the moment). "Fairness" is
> meaningless in this context.
>
> Nathan
>
> Jack Herron wrote:
> > Or a fairly priced product in a market used to enormous overpricing.
> > Jack Herron
> > 8118 E. 20th St.
> > Tucson, AZ 85710
> > 520 885-6933
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Doug Herr" <telyt@earthlink.net>
> > To: <leica-users@mejac.palo-alto.ca.us>
> > Sent: Friday, March 07, 2003 6:27 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Leica] Comments on a BD Colen statement & PMA
> >
> >
> >
> >>on 3/7/03 1:40 AM, animal at s.jessurun95@chello.nl wrote:
> >>
> >>
> >>>I believe mr. Abrahamson has stated in his review that he has an
> >>
> > impossibly
> >
> >>>large backlog .
> >>
> >>This would imply an underpriced product.
> >>
> >>Doug Herr
> >>Birdman of Sacramento
> >>http://www.wildlightphoto.com
> >>
> >>
> >>--
> >>To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > To unsubscribe, see http://mejac.palo-alto.ca.us/leica-users/unsub.html
> >
>
>
> --
> Nathan Wajsman
> Herrliberg (ZH), Switzerland
>
> e-mail: nathanw@bluewin.ch
> mobile: +41 78 732 1430
>
> Photo-A-Week: http://www.wajsman.com/indexpaw2003.htm
> General photo site: http://www.wajsman.com/index.htm
>
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>


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