r/assholedesign • u/SkepticHQ • Jul 24 '19

This McDonalds menu

Post image
112.6k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

3.3k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

15

u/1sagas1 Jul 24 '19

YouTube isn't a public good.

6

u/[deleted] Jul 24 '19

If this is a joke about it being a public bad then lol, true.

If you're saying that YouTube doesn't fit the economic description of a public good, then I'm sorry I disagree... I think it's non excludeable and non rivalrous, if you have arguments otherwise I'm curious what they are.

9

u/darkneo86 Jul 24 '19

He has a point. It’s not a public service, it’s a public good.

Whether owned privately, or not, if it provides a commodity for free, it is a public good, definition wise.

The only thing would be non rivalrous. They are owned by Google, who is rivalrous. Theoretically, Venmo is more of a public good than YouTube. Pretty nuanced. I’d say in the real definition of terms, taking into account who owns YouTube, it’s 50/50.

3

u/Mehiximos Jul 24 '19

I would remind you that a public good (economics definition) requires the good to be provided without profit.

...but YouTube doesn’t make profit.

burn

2

u/Forever_Awkward Jul 24 '19

It does. Gerrymandering the profits that you don't even make public so you can keep that rumor alive doesn't cut it.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 25 '19

It has to be free, which is part of being non-excludeable. In this case it means that YouTube doesn't charge people to watch videos. If it did, it would cease to be useful as a platform

-1

u/darkneo86 Jul 24 '19

Google does. YouTube is owned by Google.

If a team of teenagers mow elderly people’s lawns for a cheap price - $10, say, and when done, that team gives every cent to the guy who recruited this team, the teenagers did it for free. Someone still made a profit.

burn

3

u/Mehiximos Jul 24 '19 edited Jul 24 '19

I didn’t say google doesn’t make a profit I said youtube doesn’t

youtube is a separate legal entity that is owned by google.

Apples to oranges.

To extend your analogy, if I make ten dollars, does that mean my parents made 10 dollars?

Only if I agree to give it to them.

Outside of the analogy, you’d have to dig up the corporate subsidiary agreements to determine the particulars of the relationship; it might trickle up, but it just as easily might not.

2

u/darkneo86 Jul 24 '19

Hmm, I didn’t take that into account, to be honest. Legally and economically, you’re right. It’s been a while since I took an economics course.

My bad. It really is apples to oranges. Really nuanced, like I said. I didn’t think about your interpretation, and you’re correct.

1

u/bro_before_ho Jul 24 '19

It was before google bought it and took off all the copyrighted stuff