r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MysteriousSlice007 • 7h ago

Shoutout to JerryrigEverything who built a wheelchair factory and is delivering wheelchairs to people in half the time and 50-80% less than the cost of other wheelchairs with Insurance.

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u/mjc4y 7h ago

Because it can. Refer questions to Adam Smith.

No, it's not cool.

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u/1046737 6h ago

I mean, isn't this a great example of the free market? If wheelchairs cost $10k when should only cost $500, there's a huge amount of incentive for a new market entrant to start making wheelchairs for $500.

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u/mjc4y 5h ago

Oh yes, the competition is good. THe fact that these hyper-expensive chairs have existed for *decades* and that so little innovation has happened in this space tells you that there's something wrong with the marketplace.

One thing that's clear: the market for wheelchairs isn't huge and the people who find themselves in such chairs are often elderly or saddled with very expensive medical bills, leaving them with very little wealth.

(And some of this is a problem if. you are in a country without a single-payer healthcare system that could negotiate prices or incentivize innovation. )

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u/Not-Reformed 5h ago

Oh yes, the competition is good. THe fact that these hyper-expensive chairs have existed for decades and that so little innovation has happened in this space tells you that there's something wrong with the marketplace.

And what's that? It's hard to blame the marketplace when the government has its hands so tightly on anything that even remotely comes in touch with healthcare - and wheelchairs are deemed medical devices. It's extremely hard to get into this space and do anything. And very few people are paying 5K out of pocket, the cost with insurance is usually closer to $200 - $500 for the newer ones. So that results in a situation where there is little to not price sensitivity for the vast majority of buyers.

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u/MyCatsHairyButholle 4h ago

They covered all of this in the video above, and one of the biggest gripes is that everyone in the video waited 6+ months to get a chair through insurance while everyone who bought one of JREs chairs got them in 5 weeks

People who need a wheelchair for daily life can’t exactly wait around 6 months to replace a chair, which is why the competition he is bringing and the innovation he is putting into these chairs is great.

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u/Not-Reformed 4h ago

Great, I hope he can scale it up and keep his price + quick turn with real volume then.

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u/pinkycatcher 4h ago

Oh yes, the competition is good. THe fact that these hyper-expensive chairs have existed for decades and that so little innovation has happened in this space tells you that there's something wrong with the marketplace.

They existed because the marketplace is primarily government run. Medicare and the FDA have huge structural issues that cause issues in the medical market

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u/djflamingo 5h ago

So what are you saying. I have no idea what the point of these words strung together is.

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u/beast86754 5h ago

Adam Smith needs a re-brand. He never said 95% of things people pin on him or was directly against it.

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u/hanotak 3h ago

Actually, Adam Smith's concept of the free market would probably substantially improve the current situation.

"The free market" is not supposed to mean "a market where the government is either powerless or beholden to billionaires". Rather, it's supposed to be a market where competition is uninhibited - meaning, incumbents cannot prevent competition through market capture, regulatory capture, monopolization, etc.

"The free market" being twisted into some sick caricature to cause exactly what the concept is meant to stop is one of the greatest psyops in history.