Adding Value

Sometimes I think of myself as a recluse, an isolationalist.

But I tend to realise that isn't it. It's more that I object to.. production chains where many of the people in the chain take a cut of the price - thus increasing the end cost - without adding value.

I don't want to pay for the advertising industry, but if I were to buy, say, a toothbrush, I'd be supporting it.

I had the opportunity to watch TV over the weekend while I was dogsitting. On one channel, the same "Cialis" advert played 2 or 3 times every advert break (ie, every 10 minutes), all day long. The channel was about home improvement and DIY. The fact that a medication is allowed to be advertised that heavily as something that makes people take more notice of you is... shocking. If you need it, your doctor should prescribe it. It should not be a recreational choice.

It's reckless and irresponsible - in order to pay for that level of advertising then a serious proportion of men should have the problem that that medication "fixes" - but, if that high a proportion of middle aged men has that issue, then surely it's a lifestyle issue (too much TV, doughnuts, etc...) rather than a purely "medical" one.

There was also one advert suggesting taking the pill would allow a woman a trip to Paris and a house. But I digress.

In fact this is all a digression from the main point. The supply chain should be one only long enough that each link adds *real* value to the end product. Oh, I know, it's not quite that simple, but take one example.

In an Organic food shop in Ottawa there is a booth with alternative medications (frustrating in itself that herbal quick fixes and all sorts of other junk are available, and prominently pushed, in shops that "should be" selling good quality, reasonably priced, pesticide free and genetically natural foods. This has a much higher margin, though, than organic potatoes, no doubt..), and I saw and tried on a pair of "pinhole glasses".

Pretty cool - I'd not heard of them. But $35-40 for what looked like cheap plastic frames with a piece of plastic mesh instead of a normal lens seemed excessive.

I found exactly the same item on eBay for about $2, posted from Hong Kong.

That's a 1800% or so markup. Just for being out, at a display in a real shop, not just on the internet.

So I'm not isolationist - I just really really object to being overcharged.

I know, that's one sided. If someone is willing to pay £5000 per day for another person to sit in their hallway and say "Fish! Fish! FishyfishyFISH!" all day long, who am I to stop them? But that is a direct value - the buyer values that service, there is no chain.

It's like paying tax that goes to support Trident, or the nuclear industry in general, or... Except that is, at least supposedly, democracy, and we're all in that together. Supposedly.