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Markets in everything
I call this one: "Price-discriminating monopolists appeal to the weak-willed" edition. Let's say you want to attract the religiously minded parts of the individual. What might your prices look like?
When Larry Pinczower switches on his cellphone, the seal of a rabbinate council appears. Unable to send text messages, take photographs or connect to the Internet, his phone is a religiously approved adaptation to modernity by the ultra-Orthodox sector of Israeli life.
More than 10,000 numbers for phone sex, dating services and the like are blocked, and rabbinical overseers ensure that the lists are up to date. Calls to other kosher phones are less than 2 cents a minute, compared with 9.5 cents for normal phones. But on the Sabbath any call costs $2.44 a minute, a steep religious penalty.
Or maybe there is no weakness of will, but rather the high prices signal the religious loyalty of the phone owner. Here is the full and fascinating article, and thanks to Zev for the pointer.
Why is it not $10 a minute for a call on the Sabbath? Might too high a price signal the person is excessively weak-willed?
Posted by Tyler Cowen on November 2, 2007 at 02:39 PM in Religion | Permalink
Comments
I want a Kosher phone.
Posted by: 8 at Nov 2, 2007 3:07:41 PM
I take it this could never be a "clamshell" phone.
Posted by: talboito at Nov 2, 2007 3:38:22 PM
A variation, and no less hypocritical, than this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indulgence . And an affirmation than anything, including sin, has a price!
Posted by: Hillrider at Nov 2, 2007 4:32:20 PM
Why is it not $10 a minute for a call on the Sabbath?
Why not $100?
Because you only want to discourage normal business and personal calls. You don't want to punish someone for making legitimate emergency calls. In fact, though I'm far from a Talmudist, I'm pretty sure that it would be regarded as wrong, for example, to fail to call an ambulance if one witnessed an accident, Sabbath or not.
So maybe $2.44 is enough to screen out non-emergency calls without making emergency calls prohibitive.
Posted by: Bernard Yomtov at Nov 2, 2007 4:34:11 PM
Agree with Bernard Yomotov above.
Posted by: sa at Nov 2, 2007 5:08:49 PM
Might I suggest charging $6.66 on the Sabbath instead?
Posted by: happyjuggler0 at Nov 2, 2007 5:20:06 PM
Given that the significance of the number 666 comes from the New Testament book of Revelation, I'm not sure that such a rate would make much sense...
Posted by: Jared at Nov 2, 2007 6:13:41 PM
You mean the kosher phone is real? I thought the Chaser were just joking.
Posted by: Chewxy at Nov 2, 2007 8:06:34 PM
I'm surprised they feel the need to block 10,000 numbers for phone sex and to have "rabbinical overseers ensure that the lists are up to date". I guess they know what they are doing, fundamentalists can be the kinkiest people.
Posted by: Phoebe at Nov 2, 2007 9:14:12 PM
Religion is all about making stupid decisions and flaunting them publicly (none of these phone owners will keep the details of the phone to himself), to show how devout oneself is. It makes religious people feel superior. If you are walking around the city streets with an idiotic-looking hat on your head "for god" you feel superior to all those people who are not wearing the stupid hats. It is the only way to rationalize it, and it makes religious people feel really good. The dumber looking the hat is, the more devout one is, the more "proud" one can be of his faith, and the easier it is to look down on everyone else - even those wearing similar, but less dumb-looking, god-hats.
This applies to the phone here. People will pay for a moronic phone with limited functionality and higher prices so they can feel good about themselves, Knowing (with the capital "K") that they are more beloved in the eyes of the creator of the universe than everyone else with normal cell-phones.
It's not about weakness, it's about moral superiority. Though parents who will buy these phones for their children will cite their children's weakness coupled with peer pressure as the reason for buying them the phone. But the parents then get to feel better about themselves through their children, because THEY bought their kids a stupid, hobbled, cellphone while other parents buy their children normal ones. They'll flaunt their dumb purchase and sleep very well Knowing they will be going to heaven.
Posted by: bruce at Nov 2, 2007 11:58:13 PM
You might also be interested in the paper "No More SMS from Jesus: Ubicomp, Religion and
Techno-spiritual Practices" by Genevieve Bell.
Posted by: Venkat at Nov 3, 2007 12:40:52 AM
If you are weak-willed, and know it, perhaps having assistive technology to help you manage your limited supply of willpower is more important than concealing that you are in fact weak-willed.
Posted by: Cyrus at Nov 3, 2007 9:57:24 PM
1.uhm, I keep the Sabbath, and you can bet next time I take a sabbatical in Israel I am gonna buy me a 2 cents a minute contract rather than a 9.5 cents one.
2. $2.44 is equal to 10 shekel, so it kinda IS like 10 dallars a minute.
3. Isn't this just good bidness practice, like you economists have been tryin to teach us on this here blog?
This is just plain old differential pricing.
By bundling in a certain inconvenience( no Sabbath calls), you can offer a discount to a price sensitive market, without undermining your pricing from your primary market.
Posted by: h.s.ing ema at Nov 4, 2007 1:01:09 AM
Actually the phone is cheaper. Normal phone rates here are up to 34 agarote a minuet; 6.5 cents per minuet. The Haredi phone is 1/3 the price for "regular" calls. It's also worth noting that it's not irregular for phone companies in Israel to charge a different rate for in-network and out-network calls. (though usually the price difference is less dramatic) The idea is to encourage your friends to be on the same network. (it works FYI).
The limited access and content filtering is just normal practice for community leaders (most) anywhere. The US Gov doesn't tell it's people every ugly detail of what goes on, when it doesn't benefit 'the cause' and neither to Haredi religious leaders. I'm not saying right or wrong, only what is.
Members of these communities are free to leave at any time (with significant penalty of course), but they choose to live there for the benefits it offers. To them this restriction, which only seems sever to our cultural perspective, is a reasonable trade off for the gains of such a society.
Posted by: thelonecabbage at Nov 4, 2007 6:17:38 AM
Interesting, but I don't understand: why are text messages problematic? Is it for reasons of temptation, or for reasons of the medium itself?
Posted by: ALB at Nov 4, 2007 10:58:03 AM
Wow. And I thought the Left Behind video game was a dumb idea. Is it that tempting to call phone sex lines? I'm an Atheist and I've got better things to do with my time than to call a phone sex line and I've never been tempted in the slightest to call one. I understand that they feel the need to worship and all that good stuff on the sabbath but seriously even if there is a god that created the entire universe I'm sure he/she/it has much better and far more important things to do with his/her/its time than to quibble over who is making phone calls on a little speck of dirt and rock in the middle of nowhere. To get an idea of just how insignificant we are in the grand scheme of thing's please check out the following link. http://img399.imageshack.us/img399/5679/1194191043171wd9.gif
But I guess having a Kosher phone just to show how pious one is is far more important than making peace with the Palestinians I mean after all the Israelis did kind of invade Palestine and take over. It's the least they can do after kicking someone out of their own country.
Posted by: Kranchan_WCU_1836 at Nov 6, 2007 1:50:31 AM
Krankran, can you spell c-l-i-c-h-e?
I mean SERIOUSLY, the only comment LESS substantive on this thread is this one.
mnuez
www.mnuez.blogspot.com
Posted by: mnuez at Nov 7, 2007 2:00:55 AM
Price discrimination happens in many various markets. If the pious ones feel better with this phone that charges large rates on the Sabbath, then it's a legitimate business and a decent idea. Blocking lewd numbers seems a bit extreme for my taste, but hey, I like freedom. They feel better knowing the temptation isn't there and that God's will is being obeyed on the special day. People are willing to accept these terms and conditions. From what I read, they aren't forced to use these phones, so no one's being stepped on. Keep the practice up. It's modern day soul saving.
Posted by: Chris at Nov 7, 2007 10:47:38 PM
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