free ass, my market!

scratch that, reverse it.

I read the funniest editorial just now. Fortunately, they have the thing in English too. Basically the daily yomiuri, whose usual editorial fare is very "free market" directed, is saying that newspapers should be exempt from the free market.

I can't tell you much of the details, but newspapers are protected from competition in retail prices like a couple of other industries, including most notably books. That has meant that newspapers can't be sold for any price other than what the newspaper company has chosen.

Of course the newspaper companies have an interest in keeping their special status, but the bald-faced tactics they use to prove their point are ridiculous. The big winner is: "according to a recent Yomiuri Shimbun survey, an overwhelming majority of those polled support the resale system and the exception granted to newspapers." No information about said poll is available anywhere on their website, and to be sure, in the published paper either. We're lacking the phrasing of the questions, the sample size, and the percentages and margins of error among other things. The way the sentence is presented in japanese, the questions seems to have been intentionally slanted.
The smaller, but subtly charming winner is the presentation of the case as a matter of free speech, and preservation of the culture, becuase a potential price war would potentially "fundamentally shake" (weird translation) the existing delivery service. And the kicker, citing a law passed last year obligating federal and local governments to " to advance and promote print culture", the writer says that you could hardly consider encouraging price competition amongst publishers "promoting print culture".

Free markets for you.

hypocrite bastards. I hope the white knights of the gaijin community are right in their insistence that Taro Q. Public isn't really so gullible as to fall for anything he reads.