I realise there are greater problems, such as zombies or somebody setting us up the bomb, but I feel one thing I’ve noticed of late does need to be mentioned: Ludicrous mark-ups.

I recently ordered, for £35, something that was originally priced at £105. Now, retailers do not make a loss. Neither do wholesalers, at least overall. So how much of a mark-up must there have been on these things to begin with? I can accept that there might have been some sort of thought process along the lines of "We’ve sold four thousand at full price, so we can afford to let these that won’t shift go for trade price" but still, what are they paying the people who put them together?

Which leads us to an interesting ethical conundrum. See, I think 98% of us feel at least a bit guilty about how some large companies have been seen to use sweatshop labour to make products, with the workers being paid a tiny fraction of the final price. The example I mentioned above won’t have been made like that, but this is one reason I won’t buy branded sportswear (apart from the fact that it makes you look an utter tit). 

The opposite end of the problem, that will be relevant in the case I mentioned, is that the cost of living in the countries where these things are made is much lower. If a Chinese plant were to start paying its workers the British minimum wage it would distort their economy, as suddenly everyone would be paid more and would cost more to employ. Outsourcing would end, and their economy would nosedive as production was shifted. We’re probably going to see that before too long anyway, as they seem intent on mixing brutal repression of political dissidents with a skewed free market economy. This is leading to some intriguing thoughts, such as the fact that the Chinese model railway market is now larger than that of the UK despite modelling being a very unusual hobby out there.  Clearly for those willing to knuckle down, cease thinking, and refrain from typing "Democracy" into Google there are rewards.

Whichever angle you look at it from, the fact remains that some people are making outrageous profits on things that must cost them pennies to have made. Outsourcing hasn’t led to lower prices in many cases. The only thing that seems to lead to savings being passed on to the consumer is competition, in another case it was most instructive to note the price difference between products that faced competition and those (from the same manufacturer) that did not.