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Why “Suspiciously Cheap” Is the Most Dangerous Price Tag · Triple Da Money

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Today, we're explaining what a monopoly is, and not the board game, the real thing.
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_02: By the end of the video, you'll actually know it, and you'll never be able to unsee it.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_01: And here's why you should care.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Everyone our age is complaining about prices.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_01: Contra ticket, internet, rent, eggs.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Especially eggs.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now imagine if one company sold the thing you actually needed, and now you had nowhere else to actually go.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: They could charge whatever they want.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's what a monopoly can do to you.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: So instead of the boring definition, we're gonna show you with lemonade.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm the villain, obviously.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: Business is booming.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: $2 a cup, we got the best lemonade on the block.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_02: Lemons, sugar, and cups cost us about a dollar.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_02: So we make a dollar on every sale.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: That's really healthy.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Healthy is boring.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: I have an idea.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: What if we go to every single kid's lemonade stand and we make them stop?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: Make them stop how?
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it takes.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: No.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_02: We win by making better lemonade at a fair price.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Then I'm going solo.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy your fair price, losers.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: He'll be back.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: He can't even make ice.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: Step one.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: I buy every lemon supplier in Phoenix.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: You can't do that.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I have a billion dollars in a lot of connections.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_00: I can do anything.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, our lemon prices went up from 50 cents to$1.50.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: So it costs us$2 to make a$2 cup?
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_02: We're making nothing.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's so sad.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_00: Anyway.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Wait, 50 cents?
• 1:42
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't even cover your lemons.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: Correct.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm losing money on every cup on purpose.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Why would anyone even do that?
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because I can afford to lose money for a whole year, can you?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: This has a name.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's called Predatory Pricing.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: A huge company prices below cost on purpose just long enough to starve out smaller competitors who can't survive the loss.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: It's technically illegal under the antitrust law, but it's really hard to prove, so it doesn't get caught very often.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: The pulp?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was never enough.
• 2:15
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome to Baron Lemonade,$8 a cup.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: It was 50 cents yesterday.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And yesterday I had competition.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: What are you gonna do about it?
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: There's no other stand now, is there?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: This is your only choice.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'll make my own.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: With what lemons?
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that's it.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_02: But imagine it was something you needed every day, like gas or electricity.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_02: That's a monopoly.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: A monopoly is when one company controls so much of the market that you can't walk away from it.
• 2:47
  SPEAKER_02: No real competition means they can raise prices, get worse at their job, and you still pay anyway.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_02: Because you don't have another option.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, but lemonade is only pretend.
• 3:01
  SPEAKER_02: So here's the real stuff.
• 3:04
  SPEAKER_01: Biggest monopoly ever, standard oil.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: Rockefeller controlled about 90% of oil refiners in America in the 1800s.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_01: Legend.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: Not a legend.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: In 1911, the Supreme Court broke Standard Oil into 34 different companies.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_02: Some of these pieces are why you still see companies like Exxon, Chevron, and Mobil to this day.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: Rockefeller was not thrilled.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_01: Now, concert tickets.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_01: Ticketmaster, which is owned by Live Nation, handled about 70% of the face value tickets in major US arenas and amphitheaters in 2022.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's the main ticket seller for about 80% of arenas used by NBA and the NHL.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why the service fee costs more than my seat.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_02: The US government sued Live Nation in 2024, accusing it of being an illegal monopoly, which is basically the government saying, Hey Lemon Baron, we see you.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know him.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: In the real life lemonade story, diapers.com.
• 4:07
  SPEAKER_01: It was the fastest growing online diaper store.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: Amazon started cutting its own diaper prices and made it super hard to compete.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: Diapers.com couldn't keep up and ended up selling to Amazon in 2010.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: A few years later, Amazon shut it down, and that's the end.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: You also feel this every time you buy an$8 water at the airport.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_02: Or if you only have one internet company in your neighborhood.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_02: Not always an illegal monopoly, but it's the same feeling.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: There's no choice.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_02: You have to pay what they say.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: So why do two coffee shops open up right next to each other?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because if one charges$9 and the other charges$8, well, you're walking across the street.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's the free market.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_02: Competition is what keeps prices honest.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, the biggest power that you have is voting with your dollars.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't like the company, you go somewhere else.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: But in a monopoly, there's nowhere else.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: Your vote, it stops counting.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_02: Think ready player one.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: One giant company runs everything.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: And life is so boring that everyone escapes into a video game.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: The big player, that's the government.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_02: The US has antitrust laws going all the way back to 1890.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: They make it illegal to crush competition unfairly.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: The Department of Justice and the FTC can sue a company, block it from buying up its rivals, or even break it into pieces.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: Step one, shop around.
• 5:47
  SPEAKER_01: If there's a smaller competitor with a better price, give them your money.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: Every dollar is a vote.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_02: Two, don't fall for suspiciously cheap.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_02: When a giant company is way cheaper than anyone else, ask why.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: Once everyone else is gone, the price usually comes back up.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: 3.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: Please stop talking.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: 3.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: Be the competition.
• 6:09
  SPEAKER_01: Start the business.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: Monopolies hate it when a new kid shows up with a better idea.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's how Starlink ended up competing with the one company in town.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_02: And four, pay attention and vote.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_02: The people you elect decide how those antitrust laws actually get enforced.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: This is a hostile work environment.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_02: A monopoly is when one company controls the market so much that you can't walk away.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: They'll often undercut everyone first and then raise the prices as soon as everyone walks away.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_01: Competition, it keeps prices fair.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_01: Take it away, and the customer pays.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: And if something suddenly gets suspiciously cheap from a giant company, ask yourself what happens when everyone is gone.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_02: The Supreme Court can.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody tell the Supreme Court.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Triple the money.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_02: Competition keeps prices honest.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: $8 lemonade.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe.