> While on the topic of glasses; are they not the most
> over-priced thing on the market? I mean I can buy an iPod
> that has more computing power than that used for Apollo 11
> to go to the moon for about $150. ...
Two reasons I can think of. First, you're not just paying for
the little piece of plastic, you are paying for the
engineering and logistics to make the lens. The manufacturer
needs to make and stock permutations of each power correction
in each diameter, in each lens material times each level of
cylindrical (astigmatism) correction. For bifocals, multiply
that by each level of close-up correction, etc, etc.
But the biggest cost is hand-fitting each pair of glasses,
done by local professionally licensed people, not the third-
world wage-slaves that assembled the Ipod. It is also a low-
volume business compared to something like the Ipod, so the
markups are huge to cover overhead. Most large eyewear chains
in the USA don't compete that much on price, so I don't know
if there really are economies of scale.
----- Larry Woods
--
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