
How costly is Chinese IP theft? - scarcely
http://www.themoneyillusion.com/how-costly-is-china-ip-theft/
======
ramblerouser
Yes. A $100 counterfeit handbag costs American companies at least $100 in lost
profits, possibly a lot more if she would have bought a $500 genuine handbag
instead.

It's interesting to see that there are enough chinese people working in the US
that they are posting lots of stuff here defending at least some of their
government's actions. I don't blame them, but its something to keep in mind
when discussing what levels of immigration we as Americans feel is in our best
interest.

You seem to post a lot of comments about China. I appologize if you aren't
actually Chinese, I've just noticed a lot of Chinese people advocating for the
interests of China on here lately.

~~~
scarcely
> Yes. A $100 counterfeit handbag costs American companies at least $100 in
> lost profits

What do you think is the reason the economist sounds so dismissive of that
idea?

~~~
ramblerouser
Great question.

>“Displaced”? So let me get this right. If my wife buys a Coach handbag for
$100, and it’s a counterfeit from China, and she enjoys the handbag, then the
“cost” to America is $100? I’m guessing that no actual economists participated
in the writing of this government report.

This "economist" (your words) seems to think that the value his hypothetical
wife gets from the handbag she or others thinks is a real Gucci offsets the
fact that Gucci spent a fortune on their brand and China gets to take a big
fat bite out of Gucci's sales because the US isnt willing to stand up to China
on trade.

~~~
scarcely
lmao that ain't his reasoning muh brah. His point is about target
demographics. The typical person who buys a knock-off -- is s/he such that,
had the knock-off been unavailable, s/he would have purchased the real thing
instead. Only if you answer to that question is yes will you assess the cost
to be $100.

minor: 1. Coach (US), not Gucci (Italy). 2. The author is a legit economist
(expert on monetary policy), content from his blog has been posted on HN
regularly. He recently posted a series of comments on China. If you're
interested check them out at:

[https://www.econlib.org/parmesan-cheese-and-sunbucks-
coffee/](https://www.econlib.org/parmesan-cheese-and-sunbucks-coffee/)

[https://www.econlib.org/how-should-we-think-about-the-
theft-...](https://www.econlib.org/how-should-we-think-about-the-theft-of-
intellectual-property/)

[http://www.themoneyillusion.com/category/china/](http://www.themoneyillusion.com/category/china/)

~~~
dang
> lmao that ain't his reasoning muh brah

Please don't do this here, and please don't use HN primarily for political or
ideological or national battle, as described elsewhere.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html](https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html)

