Unedited 4/29/08

Charge What the Market Will Bear

Charge what the market will bear. A business wisdom that comes from Greek and Roman times. There are numerous problems associated with charging what the market will bear. Such businesses are marked by arbitrary pricing and uneven handling of customers. Nevertheless this practice sometimes finds legitimacy in customary ethics.

There is a difference between charging what the market will bear and charging "what the customer willing to pay." Charging what the market will bear has no ethical constraint. In and of itself it is ethically questionable. It is principle governed only by what a person. It is a practice that all too often takes advantage of desperate people, naive and uneducated people.

Charging what the customer is "willing"pay is founded on an approximation of what the market will bear or what it is worth with a sensitivity to the spirit in which the deal was made. There is no aggressive extraction of money or shifty tactics in transacting a sale. If the customer is willing to pay twice the price and they are making an informed decision this should not be an ethical problem The ethics are in what you promised in spirit and fact and what you delivered. Part of the spirit of a transaction is delivering the same level of quality and service unless otherwise noted.