Alexandra Kollontai, born on this day in 1872, was a Marxist feminist revolutionary who served as People's Commissar for Social Welfare in the Soviet Union and, later in life, as a diplomat for the USSR abroad.
Alexandra was born into a wealthy family of Ukrainian, Russian, and Finnish background, acquiring a fluency in both Russian and Finnish early on. This experience would later assist her in her career as a Soviet diplomat.
In 1895, Kollontai read August Bebel's "Woman and Socialism", which was a major influence on her thinking. In 1896, she helped fundraise in support of a mass textile strike in St. Petersburg, retaining connections with the women textile workers of St. Petersburg for the rest of her career.
In the years leading up to 1917, Kollontai was active as a Marxist theoretician, educator, and anti-war activist (opposing World War I, specifically). During this time, she established contact with Vladimir Lenin and gave a lengthy speaking tour in the U.S., sharing a stage with Eugene V. Debs and giving 123 speeches in 4 languages.
Following the 1917 February Revolution, Kollontai returned to Russia. Later that year, she voted in favor of the decision to launch an armed uprising against the government, also participating in the revolt. At the Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets, she was elected Commissar of Social Welfare in the new Soviet government.
The Encyclopedia of Women's Autobiography describes her efforts within the Soviet government: "The changes that Kollontai tried to bring about were enormous, involving the complete destruction of the old system and the creation of a new one...Kollontai authorized decrees that committed the Soviet State to full funding of maternity care from conception through the first year of a child's life - an unheard of measure for the beginning of the 20th century. She attempted to establish full legal, political, and sexual equality for women and to redress the entire marriage code."
In 1920, Kollontai joined the left "Workers' Opposition", an opposition tendency in the Bolshevik Party opposed to what they saw as the increasing bureaucratization of the Soviet state. In March 1921, the Workers' Opposition was banned along with all other factions at the 10th party congress in March 1921, but its members continued to be active as leaders of both the Bolshevik Party and the Soviets.
In 1922, Kollontai was one of the signers of the "Letter of the 22" to the Communist International, protesting the banning of factions in Russia.
Following this incident, Kollontai began to serve as a Soviet diplomat, becoming one of the first women to work in international diplomacy. As ambassador to Norway and Sweden, as a trade delegate to Mexico, as a delegate to the League of Nations, and as negotiator of the Finno-Soviet peace treaty of 1940, she served the USSR with what was generally regarded as great finesse. From 1946 until her death in 1952, she was an advisor to the Soviet Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
"Class instinct...always shows itself to be more powerful than the noble enthusiasms of 'above-class' politics. So long as the bourgeois women and their [proletarian] 'younger sisters' are equal in their inequality, the former can, with complete sincerity, make great efforts to defend the general interests of women.
But once the barrier is down and the bourgeois women have received access to political activity, the recent defenders of the 'rights of all women' become enthusiastic defenders of the privileges of their class, content to leave the younger sisters with no rights at all. Thus, when the feminists talk to working women about the need for a common struggle to realise some 'general women's' principle, women of the working class are naturally distrustful."
- Alexandra Kollontai
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I think the pricing difference in this case may just be a long term currency hedge. The switch 2 entered production when the yen was weak, if Nintendo aren’t sure that the yen will remain weak the pricing it “fairly” to the input costs when they signed the contract would increase their losses. It’s odd they did that (the PS5 pro was expensive across the board), but a potential factor is how large the Japanese market is while having less disposable income than the NA and European markets. Basically the Japanese version was priced against the input costs when the model went into production, while international sales have to hedge against the potential the yen gets stronger. Note that the yen gaining strength between manufacturing date and sale date reduces profits, or in a sense increases the cost of the console. In a way this is how you have to price inflation against any investment you make, I.e. an investment that grows slower than inflation is a loss, but because it involves currency conversion it’s more dynamic.
This is just my speculation. There’s a number of reasons why Nintendo would favour the Japanese market, but I think departing from how it’s done pricing in the past is probably due to currency market volatility.
Edit: I am assuming that tariffs weren’t the entirety because the market prices are consistent across other borders, but it’s possible that Nintendo was accounting for potential tariffs and kept consistent pricing across other international borders so they didn’t create a weird scalping arbitrage market if trump didn’t put in his tariff plan. I do think yen volatility takes precedence over the tariffs tho
I still don't get the scalper fear. Especially from consumers. Nintendo has millions of these things made and can keep pumping them out, it's not a one-time concert. Do we have numbers of how many PS5s were actually getting scalped?
I'd think market volatility is playing a part but since they're not discounting digital games literally at all when they should be scalper and tariff-proof I think it's Nintendo riding Switch1 success high alongside the premiumization of hobby goods generally with smaller sales at higher rates of profit and less risk.
Edit: as of 2021 it was estimated that 157,000 PS5s got scalped via eBay and StockX, which was like 10% of the initial stock for the first 3-ish months. Honestly doesn't seem like it was that big of a problem outside people being impatient. I know the scalping situation with the Switch2 would be worse because of the increased profit margins since they'd be competing against the USD MSRP from a lower standpoint and can afford to drop the price lower and lower until hitting USD MSRP levels and buy more initial stock, but still.