I bought a new lamp from Lowe’s. It was a defective POS. It was this model, “Style Selections 64-1/2″ 3-Light Nickel Floor Lamp with Nickel Shade”.

It had a defective design. The heat wasn’t handled correctly. It melted the on/off switch after a week.

I returned that lamp. They gave a refund. I wonder if they knew, that the lamp was garbage? They must keep track of “number of returns”.

Superficially, they gave a refund, which makes it acceptable. That is false. I am not reimbursed for the cost of returning to the store. That cost me time and gasoline.

Suppose that 50% of those lamps are defective. Half the time, they give a refund. The other half of the time, they get to keep the money. Some people may decide it’s not worth the time to return to the store, to bring back a defective lamp.

This is an important economic error. When you sell something defective or do something wrong, it isn’t sufficient to reimburse someone for their loss. Punitive damage should always be added. Otherwise, the economic incentive is to be dishonest.

In this manner, Lowe’s maximizes its profit by selling lousy goods! The State economy is organized into monopolies and oligopolies. Home Depot is probably just as bad or worse. If they both offer lousy products, customers are SOL.

When you’re a member of a State oligopoly, there’s no incentive to sell good products. In fact, selling lousy products may maximize profit!

Most large corporations hire the same consultants to advise them. This leads to them offering equally lousy service to everyone.

Lowe’s is part of a State oligopoly. If all members of the State oligopoly offer equally lousy products, then customers are SOL. When I returned Lowe’s defective lamp, they reimbursed me for the price of the lamp, but not the cost of the time spent returning it. It makes no difference if Lowe’s sells defective lamps. If I want to buy a lamp, I have very few choices.