[Vision2020] Doug Jones Says It Clearly

[g. crabtree]

Mr. Schou, Your analogy blows. It seems clear to me that you have very 
little understanding of how an 'all in" bet works but rather than educate 
you on the finer points of poker allow me to propose an analogy of my own. A 
player comes to the game and bluffs outrageously each and every hand. Soon, 
his fellow gamblers see him for what he is and call him. His weak hands are 
revealed, his resources dwindle and very soon he is out of the game.

This appears to be the tactic of the common garden variety wal-mart 
opponent. Exclaim loudly how WM will be the ruination of civilization and 
will bring about the heat death of the universe and so on. When folks see 
that there are many communities that are co-existing with the worlds largest 
retailer to the betterment of its residents our protester is revealed as at 
best, wrong and at worst, a dupe.

Getting back to the original heart of the discussion, hows about some real 
world examples of inferior business' beating out superior competitors. I'll 
be waiting, watching the pages of my calendar flit by.

gc


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Andreas Schou" <ophite at gmail.com>
To: "g. crabtree" <jampot at adelphia.net>
Cc: <joekc at adelphia.net>; <vision2020 at moscow.com>
Sent: Thursday, January 26, 2006 4:48 PM
Subject: Re: [Vision2020] Doug Jones Says It Clearly


> You are right about my confidence in a free market. Perhaps you could give
> me a few examples where an inferior business beat out a superior one.

Let me use a poker analogy. If I had a trillion dollars, played poker
for a living, and won every poker game I played by going "all in" on
every hand, would I be the best poker player that ever lived? Hint:
no, I would not.

This is Wal*Mart's business model: saturate the market, make
monopsonic agreements with suppliers, and run as thin a margin as
possible in new stores until all the other business goes under. Is
this a good business strategy? Yes. Does it contribute to market
efficiency -- which is generally how a "superior business" is
understood to work? No. It does not.

-- ACS