Actually, our economic system could use some improvement. I speak of the competitive market system. It just seems that sometimes it breaks down, and isn't all that competitive.
Like, take tonight. I invited someone to come tell me what is wrong with my air conditioner. They showed up, told me I needed a new coil and a new condenser, and I was ready to buy.
Ready, but didn't.
After they left, I realized I was only getting one estimate. The company had a monopoly at the moment, for there was no one else for me to listen to, nobody else to bid the price down.
I was a captive customer, a captive buyer.
If we would improve our system, we would look for all these spots where competition vanishes, where one company has a monopoly of the moment, where we are captive customers, and at each such point, we would inject competition.
How would we go about doing that? One way, would be to have a third party broker the sale. Have one company to diagnose the problem, and a separate one to fix it. The diagnostic agent is paid a flat fee, that does not change, regardless what problem he does or doesn't find. He, then, posts the diagnoses on the Internet, and the repair companies bid on it.
No comments:
Post a Comment