Two interesting items I've come across today that seem contrary to what we're used to:
1. A complaint to a competition regulator about a corporation for ... reducing prices:
http://bit.ly/ykWcUQ
On second thoughts though, it's not really that strange. Monopsonies are as bad as monopolies. It's just that we don't come across them as frequently. Monopsonies do to small suppliers what monopolies do to consumers. They're probably worse, because while a monopoly can make consumers pay more for worse products and services, a monopsony can drive suppliers out of business, set up a similar business of their own and become ... a monopoly.
2. An ad for a rather unconventional product:
http://www.tapsydney.com.au/
Again, this is not so strange if one is cynical enough to realise that Sydney Water is a corporation like any other and it has a product whose consumption it would like to promote. Still, the change from watching ads for conventionally packaged products is refreshing, as refreshing as ... tap water.
I've also just seen a full documentary on YouTube called Consuming Children: The Commercialization of Childhood. It's scary, but I suspect the trend contains the seeds of its own doom. After all, a generation moulded by corporations into becoming people who prize instant gratification as consumers can't simultaneously turn into pliant, self-sacrificing people as employees, which is why corporations are now struggling to keep their growing numbers of Gen Y employees happy.
As ye sow...
1. A complaint to a competition regulator about a corporation for ... reducing prices:
http://bit.ly/ykWcUQ
On second thoughts though, it's not really that strange. Monopsonies are as bad as monopolies. It's just that we don't come across them as frequently. Monopsonies do to small suppliers what monopolies do to consumers. They're probably worse, because while a monopoly can make consumers pay more for worse products and services, a monopsony can drive suppliers out of business, set up a similar business of their own and become ... a monopoly.
2. An ad for a rather unconventional product:
http://www.tapsydney.com.au/
Again, this is not so strange if one is cynical enough to realise that Sydney Water is a corporation like any other and it has a product whose consumption it would like to promote. Still, the change from watching ads for conventionally packaged products is refreshing, as refreshing as ... tap water.
I've also just seen a full documentary on YouTube called Consuming Children: The Commercialization of Childhood. It's scary, but I suspect the trend contains the seeds of its own doom. After all, a generation moulded by corporations into becoming people who prize instant gratification as consumers can't simultaneously turn into pliant, self-sacrificing people as employees, which is why corporations are now struggling to keep their growing numbers of Gen Y employees happy.
As ye sow...
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