Rather long thoughtful article here — not sure how long it will stay available.
It’s about the stuff of Washington thrillers — regulators who secretly own stock in companies they’re supposed to regulate, critical government reports that mysteriously vanish from the Internet, and money, money, money.
While I agree that some of the Asian platforms do offer counterfeit branded products, every single electronics part/good I was shipped was authentic. Especially the LEDs, I double checked and the performance is real as well. I guess it is a different story on branded clothing and accessories…
However, I have only been shopping there for the last 12 months.
Wow! I feel like a camel with his nose stuck into The Real Alibaba’s tent! This should be a Hollywood Movie!
Seems to me, at the point of
…
A prudent person would have to ask, WTF??? If this person can’t operate, essentially, a pay-in WWWeb site (more of an Angie’s List than an eBay), profitably, for 1.3 megabucks, how is that person still employed there?
Still, I notice no one seems willing to criticize or address the fact of the people who are buying all that counterfeit stuff… One of those immutable, Natural Laws is, if the customers don’t approve, they don’t pay, and the merchant starves. Mischief Managed.
Just putting this out there, but maybe a possible solution to the ‘X’ part of this X-Y problem is, for the name-brand holders to see the customers of the counterfeiters as a viable part of their own market, and find a way to serve them… Seriously, if the counterfeiters find their market already “cornered” by the Tiffany’s and the Louis Vitton’s of the world, they’ll have to stop on their own accord.
That is, I mean, if We the People (of the world) ever do actually try a really “Free Market”…
I’m more worried that the rich in the US are seen as entitled to cheat — and so people elsewhere with dollars want to immigrate here and to join that upper crust — people who believe they are entitled to take whatever they can get.
Here’s why:
Take half an hour and listen and think about it. There’s no simple summary for this, it’s a story about real life for a huge number of people.
If you live in Vancouver, you probably already know what he’s talking about there.
As I said it makes me think — how does the US look from outside? Like a good place to be a cheater?
Oh, agreed, if you search earlier mentions of “counterfeiting” here you’ll find several links to the US history as one of the great counterfeiters of the 1800s — Mr. Dickens was particularly unhappy about the piracy of his books.
Point being how consumer protections have evolved under different kinds of government and different kinds of upper classes.
If you read the original post you’ll see that the cheating involved was apparently originated in the US and sucked AliBaba into the trouble they’re in by making the cheating look like business as usual.
Eye, speck, beam …
The difference today is we’re plugged into the Internet and deal directly with people around the world — disintermediation has interesting effects.
Exactly. Hardly “protectionism”. More like “confessionism”, but “confessing” to whom? You’ll notice, too, that all the bureaucrats involved do not have to face periodic elections (nevermind profitability quotas) to flush them out of the system…
Don’t be sorry, and that’s not harsh! You said that far more kindly than I ever have. Or would. It seems worse in the land of Carpetbaggers and Scalawags, but I’m sure that’s a proximity bias.
But we should probably avoid straying too far over that ‘political’ line here. Purely Business issues cross that line, and this appears to be a business-related thread about business activity, so …
That’s certainly a valid, fact-based concern; but it’s not the whole problem. Cheating only occurs to the degree that the Referees, Umpires, Judges, Observers and Authorities permit it to occur, nevermind the active participation in the cheating which seems to be the modern norm. Assuming any of those “officials” have the words “Duly Elected” in their job descriptions, any “blame” still falls on you and me for putting them there and allowing them to stay.