It’s A Steal At A Thousand Bucks
Price ranges for glasses prove real eye-opener – chicagotribune.com.
For all the yak about how the modern information age has ushered in a new era of advantages for the modern consumer, the fact is, business models still favour the dumb consumer approach. Which is to say, price things for as much as people will pay, the epitome of a free market system.
Take the area of eyeglasses. Logically, with the progress of industrialization, the employment of high tech machinery, with efficiencies of distribution, how can it be that people are willing to pay upwards of over $1000 for a pair of eyeglasses? Years ago, I had the unfortunate need to pay for a cracked windshield on my car. Insurance would cover the cost if I paid the deductible, or I could opt to pay for the “factory” glass from Stuttgart for $900. Naturally, being an idiot, I paid to have the factory glass in order to maintain the ‘integrity’ of the car.
Still, I rationalize, $900 seems like a deal when you consider the expanse of glass, the weight for shipment etc etc. It seems like even more of a bargain when you consider that people will pay $1000 for a couple of silver dollar sized pieces of glass in a frame. You would think somebody could set up a frame factory near a coke bottle plant and churn out spectacles for 5 bucks apiece. These days, for less than a thousand bucks, you can buy the most recent technology flat screen TV. This is what makes capitalism so great. In a free market, there is no set price for things. We are able to strike a good deal or get fleeced according to our needs and wants.
Think about the price of a car. A very entry level car can be had these days for about $15,000. Think of the materials, the engineering, the salaries, etc etc that are involved in creating that product for sale at a price to the public for approximately 15 pairs of expensive eyeglasses. Competition in that space must be truly intense and the end result is that the consumer benefits. Consider the price of a pair of jeans. Some of today’s “designer” jeans are offered at $300 per pair. Undoubtedly, these are made at the same turn of the century factories in China as the $15 work jeans that you can buy at Costco.
The takeaway from this discussion is that the West may not be the industrial giant it once was, but they sure can market. The wisdom is that cost of things has not as much to do with value recieved but more to do with price extracted. These days it seems, we’re surrounded by hucksters.