GabitalEN
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A counterfeit product is essentially imitation goods: a fake item - usually of low quality - produced by dishonest manufacturers who attempt to pass it off as genuine. Many such products often imitate branding, packaging, or design to deceive consumers, and are commonly found in markets like food, cosmetics, electronics, and pharmaceuticals. Counterfeiting not only misleads buyers but can also pose health and safety risks and cause economic damage to original producers.
ShadeMeadowsArt
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terryjohnson56
looks nice, are there elves in that comic too?
jackal12345
This is what I meant all those pages ago about how the Chief was playing the long game with the tax on rimless wheels.
DYLANLEE79
Ok, but why do they draw Chief so sexy?
ElChupaNuggra
Stop... Making... our... Gabbi... CRY!!!
TheFastpaws
Yes, the only real solution is to toss chief into a volcano.
DrewK98
Knock-off =/= Counterfeit
When the buyer knows it's not the brand name, knows that it's a cheap replica, and willingly takes the risk, that's not counterfeit. No one buys a $35 phone from Alibaba and thinks they're getting a real iPhone.
MultiFacets
The more I learn from this comic, the more I feel like Gabi there. Making a living shouldn't have to be painful.
SirReginaldTheThirteenth
https://imgur.com/ExkBlsO
DWolf
Sorry if I'm late to the party, but do you intend to make this a book? I could see schools buying it.
ironymus
I want to break his legs! I can't bear Gabi being so devastated
Shaodyn
I hate that guy.
Andreas99100
Can I kill him now?!
L0rdinquisit0r
use his wheels as feed stock and band them.
flnhst
Chief will sabotage the wheels, Gabi gets the bad rep, Chief gets more customers.
Jhazkrit
What the hell is keeping the chief upright in that first panel? He isn't leaning on anything. He isn't holding onto anything. His sheer Jojo-esque aura is the only thing I can think of that's keeping him from toppling over.
LifeIsADanceOfMinds
He's a Bob Fosse fan. .. .. Why do you ask?
FinancialRavioli
Momentum. He's on the move.
WaxedApple
Its time to just kill Chief. And the corrupt officials that run the city. Peaceful negotiation and innovation never lead to change without violence.
AyatollahBahloni
Poor Gabi. She needs a hug. "The bitterness of poor quality lasts long after the sweetness of low price is forgotten."
ElbowDeepInAGoblin
I volunteer.
AyatollahBahloni
Get in line https://media4.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPWE1NzM3M2U1cmJ5dmpoeHc3b3JhbG0wdHJ1MnN5c3BsMzNuc2ZnaDE5YXAzaGVlNCZlcD12MV9naWZzX3NlYXJjaCZjdD1n/11aitZSSRhHYuQ/200w.webp
LifeIsADanceOfMinds
Where have I heard this before....?
Sechran
I don't know if this is really counterfeit. Counterfeit involves faking a specific brand or source of good. IE, I can get you a āgenuineā Gabital Iron Rimmed Durawheel for half the price!
Misrepresenting the materials you're selling is just plain fraud. You're defrauding the customer and, since taxes are involved, the government as well. Chief has high-up connections, but this is playing with fire.
IlsPls
If you look at the dictionary definition, its any product made with intent to deceive, e.g. a counterfeit diamond. You're thinking of a knockoff
Harbltron
Fraud and grift only matter if those in a position of power are willing to prosecute, and if I remember correctly, Chief is already slipping coin into their pockets.
BenHobson
It sure is. The most reliable way to be sent to prison is to scam the wealthy.
Larzemagne
Surely, one of them has a cousin that's perfectly capable and willing to eat that dude's face.
L0rdinquisit0r
the red gobbo and general molotov could even thing up nicely. he would probably pull some form of insurance fraud and get paid twice.
arikelrecords2000
This may come as a shock, but goblins represent a minority that is looked down on here.
In the real world, when racial minorities have used violence, they were either wildly successful or were beaten down and murdered as a people.
Lizard girl and Orc baker are maimed because they lost that war. The goblins do not have the numbers or training to defeat the Human cities army. They would lose their business families would be killed
KuroFluff
Besides, it's much better to hire a kobold to do face biting, they love that shit.
GabitalEN
Oof. Given the context of todays' strip in original language... yeah, that hits the mark.
Wouldn't be so sure about losing the war yet though, nor making it any form of racial conflict. There's been a war, true - and some conflict is ongoing. Cecile and The Baker have indeed been part of one in the past. Everything else is assumptions at this time.
arikelrecords2000
What is that context? Sorry, I don't speak the original language
TharrickLawson
at some point they really need to get together and burn Chief's place to the ground, preferably with him in it
FajitaPrinceofAllMexicans
The next comic will be the chief's just as cruel next of kin inheriting the insurance money and continuing the monopoly.
Lugh314159
He hasn't technically broken a single law.
TharrickLawson
I feel if your defence is 'i haven't *technically* done anything illegal' then getting set on fire is reasonable, personally
Maverickaura
I think the entire point of this comic is going to eventually be "you can't win against preexisting capital without violence. " but, in order to maximally show that point, they have to show every other possible method failing abd why it fails and that each failure is unambiguously caused by the malevolence of preexisting capital.
Drosophilamelanobastard
I wouldnāt be so hasty to escalate to a direct confrontation. Did you see that pose? Heās clearly a stand user.
xenosthebest
Don't, it's what he wants! He'll collect the fire AND life insurance and start a new life.
ThatPug
When there are no textbook definitions of capitalism left, then the burning shall begin
Madalchemist2018
Boss stage capitalism.
IncoherentApplesauce
I mean god damn, yall are goblins, not gnomes, REMEMBER YOUR PROUD HERITAGE
Sticklebrickk
Oh, hiring a dwarf..... now there's an idea. Or not. They are selfish.
MacMog
If the whole shop gets together and uses those sharp pointy teeth, there'd be no corpus to habeasā¦ Maybe Chief just went on a long trip, who can say?
faphappyscreencappy
This is going to have blowback eventually though, isn't it? The cheap wheels are going to crack, splinter, or buckle, and people are going to realize it's just paint. I do know this is an allegory for modern business practices, but I'm genuinely curious to see how chief slithers his way out of consequences specifically in the framework of that universe.
jhs2595
If I remember correctly, the goblins copyright the banded wheels.
Deshalope
Yeah this one doesn't work as an allegory. It's not a million sellers market, it's 2, and one is about to be known for shitty products.
txinjing9000
Most likely, he'll drag this out in court and, by the time the courts come to a decision, he'll have made more than enough money to eat the settlement. Or he could move money around, declare bankruptcy, and avoid paying altogether.
spookyghostwriter
Nah, the customers know. They're not buying the painted wheels because they think they're real, they're buying them because it's the cheap way to get around the regulations - the ones Chief put in place to make sure Gabi can't just sell her original wheels.
Now Gabi can start painting her own wheels to do the same thing, but she's still invested a ton of money getting those metal hoops set up. Painting her wheels would be competing with herself.
Muffyns
Spoilers; its never brought up again
TheMilliner
Much of the comic is like that. Itās a good way to teach really simple concepts, but it tends to forget, ignore or misrepresent problems it discusses to push its messaging harder. This is one of them, since in the real world products like this exist, but are often regulated into the ground or are ratioād by the market so hard as to make them non-competitors to the real thing.
faphappyscreencappy
Blegh. Here's hoping at least we see the gobs rally, with whatever method modern business use to combat counterfeiting and/or undercutting.
sadurdaynight
In the real world with regulations these cheap wheels would get found out and eliminated. Either companies would realize they're paying out the ass constantly replacing them, or they have delays in deliveries from the wheels constantly breaking, or someone gets injured from them. In gabi world, chief has the politicians in his pocket, safety if lives is ignored, and every company is ran by a scumbag in on the scam or idiot to grift off of.
FoxyEllie
hmmm. Yes. In Gabi World.
EndocrineResearcher
Could you imagine the state the world would be in if regulatory capture was real?