That's an idealized version of trade. The problem is that benefits can be asymmetric and pushed by irrational means, when they aren't spurious. This may be don

That's an idealized version of trade. The problem is that benefits can be asymmetric and pushed by irrational means, when they aren't spurious. This may be done out of fradulent desires, but more commonly it's done because we as a society are too efficient. We have too many goods produced, so the only way to differentiate many products is through "intangibles" which obscure the actual benefits provided, and instead sell things based on irrational factors like sexiness, virility, image associations, and identity. The customer often is forced into asymmetrical deals due to this, because of the relative quality of actual benefits provided. You don't sell cheese any more, you sell artisanal cheese. This is because if we were honest, artisanal cheese is close enough to regular cheese to be hard to differentiate, so they sell the intangibles of artisanal qualities, and people pay more for pretty much the same benefit. I think the article shows that if you take that kind of intangible differentiation too far, you get things that end up harming the benefit to customers and society.