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0 pointsbunderbunder10y ago0 comments

"We expect to see profit driven to zero in a competitive market, and that is what we saw in Standard Oil's pricing."

We don't see that in any of the information you provided. You gave a graph of oil prices, not of Standard Oil's profits.

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greggyb10y ago· 2 in thread

I was responding specifically to the latter portion of the quote excerpted by the grandparent post, which indicated minimal and zero profits for Standard Oil in areas with competition, in alignment with economic theory which indicates economic profit tends toward zero with increased competition.

bunderbunderOP10y ago

You're choosing to laser focus in on a specific aspect of the story and cut the bigger picture out of the frame in a very telling way.

Surely you've considered why Standard Oil's decision to do this was found to be anticompetitive, have you not?

greggyb10y ago

I responded to multiple points in the post. You questioned a specific excerpt. I responded regarding that specific excerpt. You are now accusing me of laser focus.

This thread has all the markings of one that becomes net negative for all involved and those reading. I'll leave it with this:

I am focusing on the outcome to the consumer of the behavior in question, not on the outcome to competitors of the behavior.

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