this post was submitted on 16 Jul 2025
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I feel you are making a good point, in a free market people will choose, it is literally in their best interest to choose, and if someone produces a sub par or even poisonous product, the people will choose not to use the product and basically self regulate. Our country had this sudden boom of Shein clothing, they were cheaper so of course they dominated. The government tried exercising control by confiscating the clothes or adding extra tariffs on the clothes and it really was ineffective, our ports are basically so corrupt anything gets through. But now two to three years later even the newspapers are picking up on the growing textile industry thanks to everyone buying locally made clothes that are higher quality that lasts more than 5 washes. Yes there was a market disruption but the market is regulating itself, and cheap clothes from China or Pakistan will have there place, they will only have enough space the market decides for itself.
Here is an opinion piece regarding the recent shifts, https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2025-07-07-after-the-bell-shopping-sucks-but-sa-is-stitching-a-comeback/
Ah yes, the blessed "self-regulating market". So when will we finally reach it? It's been some time after all, like hundreds of years now. We went through slavery, robber barons, gilded age, we're going through deregulation, enshittification, rise of fascism, rush for recession. Oh man, we're getting there, the bubble is about to burst and we're about to witness the American dream for everyone!
They also ignore that companies will cheerfully skimp on safety to save a buck and then spend far more than they saved fighting legal battles against the government to prevent or delay relevant regulations, against their own customers (or their next of kin) who have been harmed by their products, and against any kind of criminal prosecution. They'll also spend millions on marketing to minimize awareness or the severity of the problem and to actively increase sales of the dangerous product. It's not exactly an environment designed for fair and informed decision making.
Speaking of unfair, the history of monopolies, market collusion, and the race to the bottom have given us plenty of examples of companies removing that choice of product quality from the board entirely. If the people making the unsafe or unethical thing buy out all the competition and eliminate or cheapen the former competition's products until the have the same problems, there's no choice. If the competition look at the market and realize they can also take unsafe shortcuts and remain competitive, there's no choice.
There's a long history of rich people framing exploitation as the freedom to choose to accept a dangerous product or job or place to live. After all, if people are poor and desperate and propagandized enough there'll always be someone to make that choice. And the lower they drive the quality of life, the more people will have to choose the same. But it's not about saving you money. They're not doing you a favor. It's about saving money for themselves and framing things so you thank them for it.
I wish that were true, but man, it sure seems like the assholes doing this never seem to come away with less profits.