The problem with trying to legislate a free market

[Maverickz]

Quote from Free Thinker:

how can you know that? did you question every retailer?

I don't have to. The law did not mandate that they do so, and no one gives away free money.

The only way that price would come down is if the retailers thought they could use that to increase demand. The reality is with the debit transaction cost, the price of the various items were probably only increased by $0.01 (one cent) per item. If Wal-Mart lowered the cost of everything in the store by one cent, do you think that would really increase demand? Do you think people would be all "Woohoo! I can save 1 cent on toothpaste and canned goods, I better go stock up now!"? No of course not. So why would Wal-Mart reduce the price after Dodd-Frank? They wouldn't. They would be stupid to do so.

 

[Maverickz]

Quote from piezoe:

I don't suppose that it has ever occurred to you that you might have everything exactly backwards.

I'll admit that I don't know that that is the case. But could it be possible that America, the first country to perfect capitalism, is now suffering from "capitalism gone wild"? (I can't wait for the video. )

Let's see: the more regulations we add the worse things gets. The US was the strongest when we made everything and sold it to other countries. Now with government driving manufacturing overseas we are the buyers not the sellers. Sorry i don't see that I have it backwards.

The only way out of this mess to make the US more friendly to businesses not less.

 

[piezoe]

Quote from Maverickz:

Let's see: the more regulations we add the worse things gets. The US was the strongest when we made everything and sold it to other countries. Now with government driving manufacturing overseas we are the buyers not the sellers. Sorry i don't see that I have it backwards.

The only way out of this mess to make the US more friendly to businesses not less.

Sadly there is no way for the U.S. to become more friendly to business. It is already the most business friendly country the world has ever known. In fact, business controls the government. Can you perhaps give some suggestions on how it could be even more business friendly. ( Maybe exempt any business from all laws. That might do it, and that would be extremely helpful because Gates could kill what's his name who is head of Apple, or vice versa , and it would be good for business, we don't care. Kill who you may I say, whatever helps business.)

 

[Free Thinker]

Quote from Maverickz:

Let's see: the more regulations we add the worse things gets. The US was the strongest when we made everything and sold it to other countries. Now with government driving manufacturing overseas we are the buyers not the sellers. Sorry i don't see that I have it backwards.

The only way out of this mess to make the US more friendly to businesses not less.

big business loves regulation. it keeps smaller competitors at bay.

when i ran a business the thing i feared most was some fly by nighter coming in with with illegal labor and no benefits undercutting my prices.

my employees were like family to me. i wanted to provide them a good workplace with benefits a good wage. i never feared competitors who also felt the same way but employers who treated employees like dirt could undercut me and steal my customers. i would have loved to see regulations that forced an even business enviroment.
do you want to work for a company or live in a country where they are in a race to the bottom?

 

[piezoe]

Quote from Free Thinker:

big business loves regulation. it keeps smaller competitors at bay.

when i ran a business the thing i feared most was some fly by nighter coming in with with illegal labor and no benefits undercutting my prices.

my employees were like family to me. i wanted to provide them a good workplace with benefits a good wage. i never feared competitors who also felt the same way but employers who treated employees like dirt could undercut me and steal my customers. i would have loved to see regulations that forced an even business enviroment.
do you want to work for a company or live in a country where they are in a race to the bottom?

Well said!

 

[jprad]

Quote from Maverickz:

That is not the point. The point is the government steps in and forces banks to cut a source of revenue in half, the banks just raise prices somewhere else to compensate. If they would have raised taxes on the banks instead, then the banks would have just raised fees somewhere else to compensate for that too.

Every time the government does something that hurts business such as cap income streams, raise taxes, add new regulations....ALL costs get passed down to consumers and it's the consumer that gets screwed.

The only problem with your argument is that this "source of revenue" was bogus from the start.

Government fucked up by not forcing banks to rebundle their services back into our checking and savings accounts the way it used to be. Fully burden my account up front and tell me how much it will cost or how much I have to deposit into order to bypass that cost.

Through the "miracle" of fractional reserve lending they're making plenty of money with our cash that's deposited with them. To turn around and charge us again, either directly with fees or indirectly via merchant fees, to use our money is a complete crock of shit.

 

[denner]

Quote from jprad:

The only problem with your argument is that this "source of revenue" was bogus from the start.

Government fucked up by not forcing banks to rebundle their services back into our checking and savings accounts the way it used to be. Fully burden my account up front and tell me how much it will cost or how much I have to deposit into order to bypass that cost.

Through the "miracle" of fractional reserve lending they're making plenty of money with our cash that's deposited with them. To turn around and charge us again, either directly with fees or indirectly via merchant fees, to use our money is a complete crock of shit.

Agreed. ZIRP ensures that there is essentially no return on the money deposited and then a whole slew of fees attached to the account. It really is just a better deal to just keep the money under the mattress.

 

[jprad]

Quote from denner:

It really is just a better deal to just keep the money under the mattress.

If we ever get to the point where all banks charge us to use our money, then I'd agree.

But, for now anyway, there are alternatives.

Get a good credit card that gives you something back for making purchases, but you have to have the discipline to pay it in full each month.

Only use your debit card the way it used to be when they first came on the scene; as an ATM card to get cash.

Put your cash in an interest bearing account that lets you write checks against it and make sure your balance is high enough to not incur monthly fees.

It's work, even a pain in the ass, but it's still doable.