What did you think about the 60 Minutes episode about Luxottica eyewear (glasses)?
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JLeslie (
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October 8th, 2012
Wow! They own everything! Completely vertically intergrated. They make the majority of glasses and sunglasses. Ralph Lauren, Tiffany, Prada, Oakley, Ray Ban, and on and on. They own Lens Crafters and Pearl Vision and Sunglass Hut, and the glasses shops in Target and Sears, and I am sure I am fogetting some. They produce a pair of glasses for $30 and sell them for $300 (cost and prices vary, but the mark up is incredible). When asked if the insurance companies have tried to bring down prices knowing that Luxottica manufactures and owns the retailers, the answer was…they own one of the largest eye insurance companies. OMG! Total monopoly. So much for competition in the free market. It is what I always say, competition brings down prices except when it doesn’t (collusion) or when there is no competition (monopoly) the customer is screwed.
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It’s not like the market is closed to competitors. They don’t own everything. The sky is not falling.
@CWOTUS I never said the sky is falling, although I thought we were supposed to have some protections against monopolies and oligopolies, but it seems obvious America is ok with both things for now, we certainly have many many company companies that own a huge share of a market. I do have a big problem with them owning the insurace company. Big big problem. It should be a conflict of interest. I don’t know how they market their company, but they better not imply they negotiate lower prices for their “group.” That would be a flat out lie. Already many insurance companies don’t really acheive that for their customers, the medical industry is becoming a real racket with very little transparency nor integrity.
Owning the insurance company really seems out of bounds, to me. Did they interview any government officials in the story? What did they have to say?
@augustlan Not that I remember, I was distracted a little during the program. On a similar note I think doctors are allowed to own diagnostic centers, which also seems like a possible problem ethically, but I don’t think there is any law against it. Hell, a lot of doctors have big time diagnostic equipment in their offices. The convenience is nice if you really do need the tes done. My only point is, I don’t think the government would care with how things are now.
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