Comment by darksaga | Hacker News Reader

Comment by darksaga | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

It has nothing to do with activist history - this how economics works. What happened to the price of gas when there was a disaster in the gulf of Mexico? Oh yeah, gas prices went up and up and up. Who really paid for the disaster? BP or us the consumer?

It's not like one day their TV's are $300, and then overnight they're $1000. All they have to do is edge the price up moderately over time to make back their losses. But in the end, the result is the same. The loss and increased cost is passed on to the consumer.

Also, when you're talking two or three dollar differences in prices compared to other companies. Sony owns a large portion of the gaming industry. It's not like there's 10 console makers. Choice is limited, so your point about "cold equations of economics" unfortunately doesn't hold true in this case.

My point stands - when large corporations lose money, it's normal for businesses to pass the loss of revenue onto consumers.

Well, and I say this in the nicest possible way, no shit. Yes. Of course they do. What else can they do? Is the answer then never to worry an executive, or should it be to speak to them in the only language that can ever reach a corporation: make it less profitable for them to act like assholes?

The cost of assholery at the corporations is also passed on to the consumer - and everybody else on the planet - it may simply not be in absolute dollars and cents in purchase price. But we all end up paying.

Incidentally, gas prices have nothing to do with the disaster in the Gulf, and everything to do with (1) what the market will bear, (2) increased consumption in BRIC nations, and (3) profit-taking and commodity games. The oil companies, including BP, have made more money in the past year than they ever have. So they're not passing the price of disaster on; they're simply taking whatever they can grab because they know nobody is ever going to try to worry a corporation for fear they might not hire somebody. Like they will anyway.

Gah. Probably too much grar here. I'm going to go lie down.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com