Once in a while libertarians need to remind themselves that fraud is fraud, whether subtle or brassy, governmental or commercial. We do not often state it this way, but our philosophy operates on a premise that things will get start getting better only after we quit lying to one another.
Mar 7, 2010
Buck it?
In a shop session yesterday I noticed that Buck honing oil, at something over $2 an ounce, looks like, smells life, feels like and works like generic automatic transmission fluid at a shade over two bucks a quart. Just sayin'. (And, yeah, I know kerosene, three-in-one, and used 10 wt. crankcase oil work about as well as anything. And spit.)
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3 comments:
Nah, it just packaging. ("Moichandising! Moichandising!") The same with acetone v/s Revlon nail polish remover. Well, okay, the EPA doesn't come calling if you dump out cosmetics, but still.
Similarly, the people who get their knickers in a twist over what HewlettPackard charges for printer cartridges ought to remember that King C. Gillette used to give away his safety razors so that he might then sell blades.
I don't see it as fraud at all: it does what it says on the tin. The savvy consumer knows there is an equivalent product at much better cost. This holds true for many products. Caveat Emptor.
Even knowing the drill, I often purchase the smaller item for the convenience of the packaging. A 2 ounce squeeze bottle fits in the range bag a lot better than a quart bottle - and dispenses better. I'll then proceed to refill the smaller package from the larger. Heck, I do this with bottled water.
If you really want to get your knickers in a twist, check out the products marketed to audiophiles. Serious snake oil there.
I don't want to get all Cotton Matherish about this, and I suppose we'll always need the polite fiction, for at least as long as she asks, "Does this dress make me...".
But I don't think I 'll cop. " The whole truth and nothing but..." is a standard I don't meet, but it's still what we ought to aspire to. That said, "fraud" is probably a little strong for the Buck folks, uhh, (flim-flam?).
Audiophiles? Man, you ought to see they did to us camera freaks.
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