On 7/30/98, Michael Bradley <michael[_at_]vision-soft.com> wrote:
>
> Dan L. Burk <burkdanl[_at_]shu.edu> wrote:
> >
> > Consequently, consumers of the good should only have to pay for it
> > to the extent necessary to induce the creator to create it in the
> > first place.
>
> So you would also require manufacturers, say, to reduce the price
> of their products once the development costs earn out, landlords to
> reduce their rents once they've paid the mortgage, and lawyers to
> reduce their rates once they're repaid their student loans? My god,
> you're a Pinko!
Oh, quite the contrary -- remember that if you go far enough to the right, you meet the left 'round the back way.
If (I say *if*) the market is functioning properly, manufacturers, landlords, lawyers, and the rest should be naturally pushed by competitive pressure to lower their prices to marginal cost. But that's because they deal in congestible goods and services. Intangible goods are different because we have intervened in the first place -- by creating copyrights, patents, and so on -- to artificially inflate the price above marginal cost. If we're going to do that, we shouldn't do it any more than we have to -- and we generally don't have to past the point necessary to induce creation of the work.
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