Sunday 18 December 2011

It's the Economy, Stupid!


An open-air market in Salford has been closed because more fake goods were being sold than legitimate products. Experts say this illicit trade costs the UK economy around £1.3bn a year. Items being sold at the market included fake branded clothing, designer jewellery and GHD hair straighteners.

What I can't understand is this supposed economic cost of £1.3bn that these experts claim, as the people who buy the fake stuff at knock down prices are highly unlikely to buy the genuine article in the first place - especially in Salford. For example, a genuine pair of these hair straighteners are about a hundred quid, which is obscene.

The action of closing down the market is to actually take some £2m out of the economy (the value of the goods seized), and the reason the market was closed is due to copyright infringement, not because of an illusory and non-existent cost to the economy.

The irony is that the economy has actually suffered because the market was closed down, and those selling the counterfeit goods will now be drawing Jobseekers' Allowance - mind you, they were probably drawing it already.

The double irony is that these counterfeit goods are cheap, shoddy copies of what are invariably expensive, shoddy items.

Are we the only people not to have watched Strictly Come Dancing last night?


4 comments:

Spilling Ink said...

It's not about the economy, it's about the corporations and their profit. Has nothing to do with the general population silli!

Chairman Bill said...

IS: As I said, those who buy the fakes are unlikely to buy the genuine, thus profits are not really affected.

Alan Burnett said...

Yes

Unknown said...

I didn't watch it either, but what I did watch must have been crap because I cannot recall a single thing about last night's telly, and I'm certainly not going to look it up.

It was probably repeats, that is our usual fare. I wait for the day they repeat the news because it is cheaper than finding any new news.