Previous Post
July 6, 2009
So there’s this article on CNN about the growing success of love hotels in Japan, there are thousands of them, blah blah blah, I don’t think this is really news, Japan’s been doing this for decades…The point is that the article ended with the following:
Whatever the reasons, the hotels have been doing well enough that Mansfield recently went to London, seeking investors to expand.
“The industry has 25,000 hotels, and through our research we’ve worked out that 90 percent of owners have five or fewer hotels,” he said.
That fragmentation is a structural inefficiency in the market, he said, one he would like to help correct.
Oh my God, you mean there’s no single Love Hotel Inc. to pre-package and streamline the products, thus making billions of dollars for a select few?! You mean it’s actually a competitive market?! What a travesty! How inefficient!
I’ve only studied economics at the very basic level, but I think I know enough to know that this kind of mentality just disgusts me. It reminds me of the story, “Poor Little Rich Town” by Kurt Vonnegut. Unfortunately, I can’t seem to find it online.
