Amazon Charges Penny Shipping in France to Bypass Ban

CommanderFrank

CommanderFrank

Cat Can't Scratch It
Joined
May 9, 2000
Messages
75,399
When the French government took the protective step of banning free delivery of online book sales, Amazon took the news in stride. The counter the new law, Amazon is now charging the customer one penny for the book deliveries. Stick that up your Arc de Triomphe. :D

At least for now with this most recent situation, an online giant has found a relatively quick and easy way to regain the upperhand.
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Good to see that the US isn't the only country with complete morons running the country.
 
Scythe said:
Good to see that the US isn't the only country with complete morons running the country.
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Most of the countries are run by morons, the difference here is that our morons unfortunately have been given actual power.
 
Scythe said:
Good to see that the US isn't the only country with complete morons running the country.
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Its not idiocy, its corruption. The unions have tremendous politically power there, which is why French work ethic for much of the country is so poor, and the reason that they try to implement protectionist policies and so recklessly attack foreign businesses.

The red party, aka socialist party, holds about 50% of seats right now in the national assembly and a third in the senate, which is damn frightening.

There's a good chance that if there were any further economic instability in the country, that they could go quasi-communist similar to present day China/Russia/North Korea/etc.
 
Scythe said:
Good to see that the US isn't the only country with complete morons running the country.
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If you've ever watched CSPAN you'd know only a moron (or someone that cares more about power than their sanity) would want to work with the rest of those morons. Government is kind of a self-selecting subset of the most selfish, irrational, power hungry, shameless, compulsive liars we as a society have to offer.
 
Sometime people get so cynical of politicians that we forget that very often politicians in democracies do exactly what their constituents want. France has a lot of small independent book sellers and yeah, those businesses have a tough time dealing with companies like Amazon.

Many love to exhort the power of the free market and competition. However inevitably the nature of the free market is to kill competition. While many will say it's all do to government interference, it's often simply a matter of undercutting the price of one's competitors to the point that it drives the competition out of business.

I think laws like this are pretty lame, however blaming politicians for trying to protect the interests of their constituents is equally lame. Democracy is never about a perfect solution based on perfect ideal. It's trial and error like virtually all endeavors of human kind.
 
My question is how does France fix this. However silly that intent may be, how do the elected officials of France enforce their intent? Requiring a universal minimum shipping fee could screw some French businesses as well.

I have an idea. Why not dispense with the silly attempt at any appearance of not specifically targeting foreign companies, and simply force a minimum on only non domestically owned book sellers.
 
I like how every time something foreign comes up you have the nutters come out and start with the 'red commie union socialists' routine.

I too hate paid holidays and work breaks!
 
DarkStryke said:
I like how every time something foreign comes up you have the nutters come out and start with the 'red commie union socialists' routine.

I too hate paid holidays and work breaks!
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It's the 'stupidity' gene rearing it's ugly head. And as you can tell, no matter the degree of education, no matter how advanced the country, when you have it, nothing can help.
 
heatlesssun said:
Sometime people get so cynical of politicians that we forget that very often politicians in democracies do exactly what their constituents want. France has a lot of small independent book sellers and yeah, those businesses have a tough time dealing with companies like Amazon.

Many love to exhort the power of the free market and competition. However inevitably the nature of the free market is to kill competition. While many will say it's all do to government interference, it's often simply a matter of undercutting the price of one's competitors to the point that it drives the competition out of business.

I think laws like this are pretty lame, however blaming politicians for trying to protect the interests of their constituents is equally lame. Democracy is never about a perfect solution based on perfect ideal. It's trial and error like virtually all endeavors of human kind.
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I completely agree. And let me add, that when companies reach the level of influence that Amazon does, the free market takes a kick in the groin. Not to mention that corporate behemoths like Amazon, usually seem to gain direct access to the offices of law makers once they reach that stage.
 
DarkStryke said:
I like how every time something foreign comes up you have the nutters come out and start with the 'red commie union socialists' routine.
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So a GOVERNMENT decision has nothing to do with what the GOVERNMENT is made up of? Or do you think I made up how powerful the socialist party is in France right now?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Party_(France)

Francois Hollande, current president of France is... yup, a member of the red party, but that couldn't POSSIBLY have anything to do with protectionist government policies on free trade. :rolleyes:
 
Ducman69 said:
Its not idiocy, its corruption. The unions have tremendous politically power there, which is why French work ethic for much of the country is so poor, and the reason that they try to implement protectionist policies and so recklessly attack foreign businesses.

The red party, aka socialist party, holds about 50% of seats right now in the national assembly and a third in the senate, which is damn frightening.

There's a good chance that if there were any further economic instability in the country, that they could go quasi-communist similar to present day China/Russia/North Korea/etc.
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I won't say you're 100% wrong, but your post has it's fair share of nonsense.

Corruption is everywhere. And France it's no exception. However, unions are not allowed to funnel obscene amounts of money like it is customary in the US into their elections. It is true however, that they exert influence by means of their large web or participants, and large number of members. OTOH French corporations and big pocketed private individuals have been known to make donations (cash, free apartments ...) to politicians - not like in the US by financing their campaigns which is perfectly legit, but illegal in France.

The statement that they would go full commie like North Korea is a concentrated nucleus of unadulterated horseshit.
And FIY, Russia is not communist anymore. And neither is China, at least not entirely.
 
Scythe said:
Good to see that the US isn't the only country with complete morons running the country.
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Pretty bad when your countries economy is dependent of everyone else also screwing up.
 
Ducman69 said:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socialist_Party_(France)

Francois Hollande, current president of France is... yup, a member of the red party, but that couldn't POSSIBLY have anything to do with protectionist government policies on free trade. :rolleyes:
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The Socialist Party in France is left of center, and is a long shot from being akin to the Communist Party in France.
It's like saying that the UMP - the Conservatives - party of France is the same as the Front National, far right wing.

But it's OK. It's clear your seeing things through the eyes of someone who has been victim of an antiquated, bipolar party system, that hardly fits the vast complexities of a wide 21st century political landscape.
 
Make the books free and just charge for shipping. There's really no difference in the end.
 
heatlesssun said:
Sometime people get so cynical of politicians that we forget that very often politicians in democracies do exactly what their constituents want. France has a lot of small independent book sellers and yeah, those businesses have a tough time dealing with companies like Amazon.

Many love to exhort the power of the free market and competition. However inevitably the nature of the free market is to kill competition. While many will say it's all do to government interference, it's often simply a matter of undercutting the price of one's competitors to the point that it drives the competition out of business.

I think laws like this are pretty lame, however blaming politicians for trying to protect the interests of their constituents is equally lame. Democracy is never about a perfect solution based on perfect ideal. It's trial and error like virtually all endeavors of human kind.
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No like any good socialist country, there's a handful of connected business that share power with the government and scratch each others backs. In this case, the B&M publishers and local digital stores, don't want to compete with Amazon who discounts shipping costs with free shipping and books themselves to the publisher allowed max. The made it illegal to do both since the rest can't afford to do both.
 
Kueller said:
If you've ever watched CSPAN you'd know only a moron (or someone that cares more about power than their sanity) would want to work with the rest of those morons. Government is kind of a self-selecting subset of the most selfish, irrational, power hungry, shameless, compulsive liars we as a society have to offer.
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Reminded me of this segment:


http://www.mediaite.com/tv/daily-show-concludes-the-only-people-fit-to-run-for-congress-are-assholes/
 
Kueller said:
Government is kind of a self-selecting subset of the most selfish, irrational, power hungry, shameless, compulsive liars we as a society have to offer.
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And that is exactly the kind of scum the "elite" (the top 0.001%) want as puppets attached to their strings.

The bottom 99.9% of the U.S. are good, hard working, fair, honest people who want a better life for themselves and all those around them. Too bad the bottom 99.9% have no real power/wealth/influence to effect any real change.

Amazon doesn't even generate any real profit. They are all about market share and driving other businesses, out of business.

Some very interesting reads on Amazon here and here.
 
kindasmart said:
And that is exactly the kind of scum the "elite" (the top 0.001%) want as puppets attached to their strings.

The bottom 99.9% of the U.S. are good, hard working, fair, honest people who want a better life for themselves and all those around them. Too bad the bottom 99.9% have no real power/wealth/influence to effect any real change.

Amazon doesn't even generate any real profit. They are all about market share and driving other businesses, out of business.

Some very interesting reads on Amazon here and here.
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+1, its funny how occupy wall street is protesting against the top 1%, but if you look at income growth over the past 10 years, the top 1% is actually only treading above water and barely maintaining their quality of life, the top 0.1% is doing a little better, but the top 0.01% is making money hand over fist.

Can you say crony capitalism? why compete in the free market where you can fail when you can bribe a politican to pass some laws that benefit only you at the expense of everyone else?
 
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