So, Engadget has an article through Slashdot which got it from a USDOJ posting regarding the fixing of LCD prices. And let me tell you, I had thought there were some shenanigans going on with LCD prices, but then they started dropping like a sack of potatoes. And now we know why… they were caught shenaniganning [which isn't a word, but it works]. The accounting for this has reached $850 Million. Which really is just a drop in the bucket for sales.
Now… another issue I have, effectiveness and ethics;
Now, I get into a lot of discussions about the efficacy of the Federal Government. Basically, a lot of people say that its worthless because they are slow and there is no real competition because you don’t lose your job even if you are a complete numbskull. But really, the Feds are very effective but operate at a disadvantage because of the bureaucracy of the entity. They have to abide by certain rules while the criminals do not. They have to find a higher ground of ethics, and you only hear about the ones who don’t. The Federal government is massive, so you’ll always find a few bad seeds, but I doubt there are as many as there are outside of the Federal government.
Which brings us to pay for performance and ethics;
One thing a lot of people don’t realize when they talk about taxes is that government employees pay into taxes themselves, so each one of their paychecks are upwards of 30% paid for by their own recursive taxation. I’d argue it is double taxation, but it could be construed as efficiency of Federal economy.
But in summary, the businesses involved in this would have continued to get away with it because they conspired to fix the prices and I would assume, set the markets that they would operate in. I’m not sure what the invisible hand of capitalism would do with this; but it certainly would have continued to make some people rich as their invisible hands [at least to the consumers] manipulated the markets if the Feds and ethical people had not stepped in.
So, are people naturally inclined to do this? Do you think it is okay to do this? Are they just trying to maximize profits?
I’m glad Engadget is doing something with their articles, which is direct linking to sources of information. It used to be, not to long ago, that you had to break out a Ouija board to figure out what was going on. Basically all links were internal links, and only through taking keywords out of the article could you find the article in reference. Anyway, thank you Engadget.
Related posts:
You must log in to post a comment.