It's like any e-commerce platform where the platform cares only about maximising...

chronci739 · 2025-10-17T06:21:21 1760682081

> This business model essentially makes sure all the surviving ones are those who can get by on the lowest profits.

And what’s wrong with “lowest profit”?

If that equates to lower quality, you as a customer are free to select the more expensive restaurant on DoorDash.

Airlines have tiny profit (single digit $ per passenger) yet there’s no sympathy for them.

So “big greedy corporation” vs “mom and pop shop” is the core reason, yeah?

oblio · 2025-10-17T07:56:43 1760687803

And then you wonder about the obesity crisis.

chronci739 · 2025-10-17T09:41:51 1760694111

> And then you wonder about the obesity crisis.

China has drone food delivery. Lower profits than American delivery.

China ain’t obese.

Try again.

oblio · 2025-10-17T10:41:03 1760697663

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obesity_in_China

> Obesity in China is a major health concern according to the WHO, with overall rates of obesity between 5% and 6% for the country,[2] but greater than 20% in some cities where fast food is popular.

> Rapid motorization has drastically reduced levels of cycling and walking in China. Reports in 2002 and 2012 have revealed a direct correlation between ownership of motorized transport by households in China and increasing obesity related problems in children and adults.

> A leading child-health researcher, Ji Chengye, has stated that, "China has entered the era of obesity. The speed of growth is shocking."

You're sooooo clever.

Edit: extra LOL at creating the account to criticize and then downvote facts in the reply.

chronci739 · 2025-10-17T15:00:33 1760713233

> Edit: extra LOL at creating the account to criticize and then downvote facts in the reply.

Not me, I made this account 7 days ago. Check my history.

> And then you wonder about the obesity crisis.

And for the record:

I don’t give a shit about the obesity crisis.

Or any other drug, mental health, crime, or demographic problem facing any country.

I only care about the number on my bank statement.

Well, my private equity partner accounts, but you get my point.

oblio · 2025-10-17T18:05:26 1760724326

> I only care about the number on my bank statement.

> Well, my private equity partner accounts, but you get my point.

When they bury us, the money won't matter.

tsimionescu · 2025-10-17T07:18:17 1760685497

The whole goal of a market is to reduce profits for all sellers, which is equivalent to reducing unnecessary costs for buyers. If a company makes a huge profit, by definition that means its customers are paying a huge premium on every purchase.

terminalshort · 2025-10-17T07:02:01 1760684521

People complain about monopolies. People complain about competition.

lurk2 · 2025-10-17T07:54:55 1760687695

Amazon is the model to observe here; before that, Walmart. Red Widgets and Blue Widgets are sold. The platform rewards whichever product is cheaper. Initially this will lead to the two competing their margin away, and then the only way to compete is to start substituting inferior materials or craftsmanship. Consumers can theoretically make the choice to switch away from these products, putting the bad actors out of business, but there is a cost associated with this switch, and consumers may not always be aware of product substitutions, nor of the availability of potential alternatives.

Soviet-style command economies aren’t a better alternative, but it’s an incentive problem with market economies without an obvious solution; market fundamentalists get around it by just insisting that if consumers really cared, they’d seek out alternatives, but this doesn’t solve the problem until after it happens.

This problem is mirrored by an incentive structure observed in government where a concerted interest group can expend more time and effort lobbying for a budget allocation than an individual can expend resisting it.