What Kiwi’s should be aware of is that most goods in New Zealand are overpriced. It’s not just the All Blacks shirts; it’s just about everything. We pay top dollar for cars that other countries throw away, we pay more for our dairy products even though we’re one of the largest producers, we pay top dollar for all our electronic goods because of price fixing and we pay far too much for houses because of speculation and an unregulated market.So the furore about Adidas price gouging the All Blacks shirt seems rather silly. However it’s amusing to see John Key go against his capitalist idealism to say that market set pricing is not acceptable. Suddenly John Key believes the free market shouldn’t apply because of public opinion. Well how about you put your money where your mouth is John and put some regulation in place so that New Zealander’s don’t get ripped off all the time?
Despite the huge public outcry, I think it’s a non-issue when looked at as a singularity. The big picture is what matters, and until our supposed leaders make some changes instead of giving us faux outrage and rhetoric, Kiwi’s will continue to pay more for less.
The All Blacks shirt pricing scandal is a triviality in comparison to Adidas’ other business practices. Those very same shirts are being made by what is effectively slave labour. The materials Adidas and other manufacturers are using are destroying the environment. When was the last time the mainstream media ran a story about those far more important topics?Skeletons in Adidas' closet are nothing new. You might recall them using slave labor in China to make the 98 World Cup soccer balls. At the time a $1.2 Billion lawsuit was undertaken on behalf of current and former political prisoners of Chinese work camps. Adidas was also sued for selling cleats and running shoes that included kangaroo products. So lets add animal abuse to that list of unacceptable business practices.
Those who are stupid enough to pay $220 because of an emotional attachment to the All Blacks for shirts that costs 60 cents an hour to manufacture, while being completely oblivious to the process of slavery, animal abuse and environmental destruction that companies like Adidas use, deserves to be ripped off.
The so called "free" market in its current form is all about price discrimination, maximizing profits at the expense of the environment, abusing workers rights and basically ripping consumers off. Now those things are worth getting up in arms about.
