@KingMike It was a harrier jet for 7,000,000 Pepsi points. Two things in particular made this really crazy. Pepsi let customers buy additional points for .10 USD per point if they were short of their total needed for a prize; great if you needed 200 more points for the jacket. The second thing was there originally wasn’t any small print saying that the jet was a joke prize.
So following Pepsi’s rules, a jet that cost approximately $33 million USD at the time could be purchased with a couple Pepsi points and a check of $700,000 USD to make up the difference. The guy who attempted this actually found some financially well off backers to help him with the check and the rest is courtroom/consumer rights history.
Long story short, he ended up suing. He did not get his jet, but Pepsi ended up changing the point total required for the jet to 700,000,000 , essentially discouraging people from even trying to obtain it since the cost in Pepsi points was now more than twice that of the jet.
@Tasuki Seriously? The US doesn’t have the ability, or manufacturing infrastructure to produce products like this on the scale required to supply normal demand.
As for taxing a consumer product with the expectation that it will somehow influence a shift in manufacturing locations, I’m sorry but that’s not how it works. The consumer ends up paying more for the product in the end. The companies have the same cost margins per counsel/item. There is little, if any, reason for any of these companies to undertake the massive cost of not only building a manufacturing facility, but also finding/training skilled workers for said facility.
China and the surrounding countries are the technological powerhouses. They have the infrastructure, they have the skilled labor, and they are geographically close to all of their suppliers. The US is, at best, two decades behind China. At worst, the US is so far behind that there is no foreseeable way for them to catch up.
Comments 2
Re: Random: Man Forges Popsicle Sticks To Win Pokémon Contest, Gets Arrested
@KingMike It was a harrier jet for 7,000,000 Pepsi points. Two things in particular made this really crazy. Pepsi let customers buy additional points for .10 USD per point if they were short of their total needed for a prize; great if you needed 200 more points for the jacket. The second thing was there originally wasn’t any small print saying that the jet was a joke prize.
So following Pepsi’s rules, a jet that cost approximately $33 million USD at the time could be purchased with a couple Pepsi points and a check of $700,000 USD to make up the difference. The guy who attempted this actually found some financially well off backers to help him with the check and the rest is courtroom/consumer rights history.
Long story short, he ended up suing. He did not get his jet, but Pepsi ended up changing the point total required for the jet to 700,000,000 , essentially discouraging people from even trying to obtain it since the cost in Pepsi points was now more than twice that of the jet.
Re: Nintendo, Sony And Microsoft Band Together To Fight Tariffs On Video Game Consoles
@Tasuki Seriously? The US doesn’t have the ability, or manufacturing infrastructure to produce products like this on the scale required to supply normal demand.
As for taxing a consumer product with the expectation that it will somehow influence a shift in manufacturing locations, I’m sorry but that’s not how it works. The consumer ends up paying more for the product in the end. The companies have the same cost margins per counsel/item. There is little, if any, reason for any of these companies to undertake the massive cost of not only building a manufacturing facility, but also finding/training skilled workers for said facility.
China and the surrounding countries are the technological powerhouses. They have the infrastructure, they have the skilled labor, and they are geographically close to all of their suppliers. The US is, at best, two decades behind China. At worst, the US is so far behind that there is no foreseeable way for them to catch up.