Scotty

You may have (intentionally?) misunderstood the article as there is no 'undertone',

A comprehensive economic security framework with Japan, the European Union, South Korea, Australia, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian partners ...

It's pretty clear.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 2d ago

Canada needs to build lasting relationships with democratic allies like the European Union, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, and others. Carney's visit last week in China and the deal was a mistake imo. It risks to contribute to Canadian canola farmers ongoing dependence from a single market that is governed by a dictatorial government, and could make Ottawa vulnerable for future coercion as we have seen in other countries.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 4d ago

Prices are disconnected from the cost of production. The price is determined at the marketplace by the customer's willingness to pay (according to Behavioral Economics, which is mostly applied in modern economics, as opposed to the reservation price in traditional economics).

This is also one mistake some start-up founders make when introducing their product: calculating the costs and add a certain percentage, but this is not advisable (because, among others, this cost-up pricing could result in a price for your new product that customers are not willing to pay ...).

... will only create black market opportunities for low price exploits

That would not work, if, say, you go to McDonald's and buy through the app, as the McMuffin isn't sold in advance ... And even in some markets where a resale could theoretically be made (such as for concert tickets or flight tickets), it is often legally prohibited to resell a tickets above face value (that's the case for concert tickets in the UK since the start of this year, for example) or the product is connected to your ID ( that's the case with many airlines do with flight tickets).

Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 4d ago

... sellers can heavily individualise pricing ...

This is has been done for thousands of years. Some scholars in the field compare this with the Ancient souks, the bazaars in the Arab world, where sellers would adjust prices to individual customers, with those wearing smart suits or were known to be richer would pay more than others. It was supposedly the first dynamic pricing strategy in human history, some say.

It's just that the massive data collection (and customer habits) of our modern days enable companies to do this at a much larger scale, and it can be automated.

Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 4d ago

If we want to fight climate change, we need -among other things- fewer cars, no matter whether they are EVs or others.

The rest of you write-up makes largely no economic sense. It's just another "the West bad, China bad okay" rant.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 5d ago

This happens through a wide range of measures, depending on the kind of business, customer segments, products and services.

One major tool is Plexure, a New Zealand-based company that offers an app. It is used by McDonalds (which holds almost 10% in Plexure), Ikea, 7-Eleven, and hundreds of other companies around globe.

As the Prospect wrote in 2024 in an article:

It starts with using a cheap offer to entice users to purchase through the mobile app. After that, various factors go into the process of “deep personalization”: Time of day, food preferences, ordering habits, financial behaviors, location, weather, social interactions, and “relevance to key moments i.e. pay day.” ...

If the app knows you get paid every other Friday, it can make your meal deal $4.59 instead of $3.99 when you have more money in your pocket. If it knows you usually grab an Egg McMuffin before class on Wednesday, or that you always only have an hour to eat dinner between your first and second job, it can increase the price on that promotion. If it knows it’s cold out, it can raise the price of hot coffee; on a scorcher, it can up the price of a McFlurry. And the app gets smarter as you agree to or turn down those offers in real time ...

It may be just half a dollar or so, but with millions of customer interactions per day and an increase in customer engagement, companies like McDonalds make a huge profit increase, as the article says:

[Plexure] promises that using its app strategy will increase frequency of orders by 30 percent and the size of orders by 35 percent. Domino’s just attributed its strong first-quarter earnings, with income increasing by 20 percent over last year, to its loyalty program. Grocery stores like Walmart and Kroger have also gotten into this, leveraging purchasing history with digital targeting. And improving artificial intelligence can just make this all move faster ...

But apps like Plexure are not the only way to personalize prices. The entire Prospect article makes an interesting read, and there is a lot of research in the meantime as Bots improve the ways of Dynamic Pricing substantially.

@Sxan@piefed.zip

Edit for an addition: If you like to have a quick read to know how the Plexure app works for McDonald's, here is a brief description

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 5d ago

I have to disagree. Taiwan has vast experience in dealing with China, and the opinion is even in line with many experts, including those from Canada (just read my other post from a few minutes ago in this community).

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 5d ago

You will have to ask yourself whether it was coerced labor that built your car. I for may part don't want such a vehicle.

I also don't understand why people are (rightfully) calling for stronger workers protection in Canada and the West, but at the same time welcoming Chinese cars built under forced labor conditions (Chinese carmaker BYD's plant in Brazil last year was shut down as the factory employed Chinese migrant workers under "slavery-like" conditions, the authorities said).

Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

Yeah, the settlement over alleged spying.

I don't know whether or not he was a spy, but his isn't evidence. He allegedly was sort of a bartering chip, and he was not the first and only one. There are thousand of foreigners detained in China over 'espionage' for such reasons.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

You have been seeing such things in China for years. Many carmakers have gone bankrupt. With Chinese imports to Canada, the situation will worsen for Canadian automakers as well as suppliers. Canada risks becoming dependent on China as well as it is (or was?) on the US.

And China will use this leverage for future political and economic coercion.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

Do you have any evidence for this?

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

Chinese carmakers' share in the North American market is next to zero, and Canada's auto plants have not 'abandoned' EVs. But Canadian plants pay a multiple of what Chinese carmakers pay, and if you buy a car from a Canadian plant you can be sure that it is not made by slave-like labour.

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

It's just trade under realpolitik because the US is an unreliable partner and an active threat to our sovereignty.

This is even more true for China.

Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

As an addition, there is a podcast on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new trade deal with China:

Canada’s trade gamble: Why the latest deal with China may do more harm than good -- (Podcast, 25 min)

Host Cristina Howorun sits down with Flavio Volpe, President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturing Association and one of the architects of CUSMA, to discuss the implications this deal could have on the EV market, the 90,000 jobs in the auto sector and tariff and trade negotiations with the States.

(Here is an Invidious link of the podcast if you prefer that.)

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Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

As an addition, there is a podcast on Prime Minister Mark Carney’s new trade deal with China:

Canada’s trade gamble: Why the latest deal with China may do more harm than good -- (Podcast, 25 min)

Host Cristina Howorun sits down with Flavio Volpe, President of the Automotive Parts Manufacturing Association and one of the architects of CUSMA, to discuss the implications this deal could have on the EV market, the 90,000 jobs in the auto sector and tariff and trade negotiations with the States.

(Here is an Invidious link of the podcast if you prefer that.)

Scotty @scribe.disroot.org 6d ago

There are a lot of problems, but here the problem is RT. It's owned by a dictatorship that uses it to push the worst of the worst and to shape the worldviews of users in ways that are legitimately very threatening to both Greenland and Canada. (But, yes, Xitter and Xinhua and many others seek to sow division by fake news, insofar I agree).