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Should auto manufacturers be forced to sell through dealers?

Discussion in 'Sports and News' started by YankeeFan, Oct 19, 2014.

  1. playthrough

    playthrough Moderator Staff Member

    In my state all dealerships are closed on Sundays per state law, which is ridiculous.
     
  2. NoOneLikesUs

    NoOneLikesUs Active Member

    Service departments rip you off but you have to have a place to go in case of warranty issue or recall.
     
  3. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    They're not fake, but they wouldn't exist but for restraint-of-trade laws. So it's as if we levied a tax on the car-buying public, and we justified said tax by the fact that, without it, the tax collectors would lose their jobs.
     
  4. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Wouldn't most of the jobs still exist?

    The auto companies would still need salespeople and a service department. It's the dealership owner who would be eliminated.
     
  5. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    I'm trying to think of some similar situations.

    Producers of alcohol -- with some exceptions for small brewers/distillers, and on-site sales at a brew pub -- are generally prohibited from selling direct to consumers.

    Doctors can prescribe drugs, but can't sell them.

    What else?
     
  6. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    Not gonna extrepilate how many, because that's irregardless. The facts are that the "it might cost jobs" argument is nonsensible and inconsummatable with even basic economic reality.
     
  7. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Oh sure. I just think that as an argument, it's overstated.

    It's a protection racket for entrenched businesses.

    The more regulated a business is, the more the regulated learn how to use those regulations to their advantage. They create barriers to entry.

    We're seeing the same thing with the opposition to Uber and Airbnb.
     
  8. BitterYoungMatador2

    BitterYoungMatador2 Well-Known Member

    the NADA - National Auto Dealers Association - is basically the NRA for car dealers. They may not be as fanatical or influential as the NRA, but they do have lobbyists, and I'm sure they are pushing against Tesla hard - mainly because they want to be able to get Tesla franchises. And I'm perfectly fucking alright with car dealers being closed Sundays, kind of like I don't recall anyone in this country dying of consumerism HIV because stores weren't open on Thanksgiving day.
     
  9. doctorquant

    doctorquant Well-Known Member

    In many states real estate title insurance companies are forbidden from conducting title searches. You are required by law to do real estate transactions, no matter how routine, with a lawyer's help. Who wrote these laws?

    In many states, you cannot buy a coffin except from a licensed funeral home. Who wrote (i.e., paid for the enacting of) these laws?

    The body of scholarship focused on such instances is called public choice economics. Google "Baptist" and "bootlegger" (jointly) sometime. Fascinating stuff.
     
  10. YankeeFan

    YankeeFan Well-Known Member

    Right. The online sales of caskets was an early "disruptor" of established business practices.

    Aren't some vast majority of funeral homes also owned by just a couple of companies. 60 Minutes or Dateline or 20/20 did a story on it.
     
  11. It would be more rational if posters still working for newspapers supported laws mandating all adults have a newspaper subscription.
     
  12. Riptide

    Riptide Well-Known Member

    I like what you did there.
     
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