3 ms·
You have to keep going and not stop at the first level (for example, who buys airline tickets ?). What you'll find is that, eventually, it all comes back to co
by TimJYoung 9y ago
You have to keep going and not stop at the first level (for example, who buys airline tickets ?). What you'll find is that, eventually, it all comes back to consumer demand.
- bryondowd 9y agoBut the people making decisions at any one company can't go beyond that level for their decision-making. While it would be beneficial to the company if consumers in general had more spending power, each company's decisions can only make a negligible influence on that, and would in fact just be providing a tiny subsidy that the rest of the market would likely eat up without returning the favor. Most owners and shareholders and such wouldn't stand for that, and whatever few eccentrics who would, wouldn't reach the critical mass necessary for it to benefit anyone much. I don't know of any way to resolve that short of government intervention or massive employee unionization, which are both rather far-fetched in the current environment, but perhaps will become more plausible as more people get their jobs automated.
- TimJYoung 9y agoYes, it is absolutely a problem along the same lines as the Prisoner's dilemma: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prisoner%27s_dilemma And yes, I agree, we're going to need a countervailing market mechanism to stop it from proceeding to its logical conclusion: a persistent, severe recession. Whatever the mechanism, it's going to need to be dynamic and adaptable, or it's "dead on arrival" as a solution.