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Do you believe the customer's appetite for more and more garbage is truly infinite? At some point, the demand growth will stop. Earth has a finite mass, after

Do you believe the customer's appetite for more and more garbage is truly infinite? At some point, the demand growth will stop. Earth has a finite mass, after all, and humans only live for about a century at the longest.

ethbr0 5y ago
> Do you believe the customer's appetite for more and more garbage is truly infinite? https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/NFLX https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/NFLX Yes.
- BeFlatXIII 5y ago
  Netflix is also the company who said that sleep is one of the limiting factors to their growth. There are only 24 hours in a day and sleeping, eating, and going to work each consume a non-zero number of those.
fragmede 5y ago
Sure, but we're nowhere near the planet's maximal capacity, won't be for generations, if ever. By the time we're remotely near that, a Dyson sphere/ring could extend that for hundreds of generations more. The idea of maximal density may bring to mind dystopian sci-fi, but eg Judge Dredd's urbanized New England was less dense than Kowloon/Hong Kong is now. The demand curve, thus, is functionally infinite, same as the sun's lifespan. It'll expire after millions of years, but even my great grand children will be long gone by then, so the astrophysics of it mean that the statement "the sun will last forever" isn't literally true, but functionally, it is.
crazygringo 5y ago
You're making an awful lot of assumptions that consumer appetites are for "garbage". Yes there's absolutely cheap stuff made in China. But it's also critically-acclaimed novels and television series that speak to the issues of our day. It's desire to travel and experience other cultures. It's things like wanting to learn the basics of another language with Duolingo. Or it's medical advances. Yes I do think consumers will always want more improved or up-to-date things. But I also think it's awfully judgmental to perjoratively label those things "garbage".
theskypirate 5y ago
Of course demand is infinite. 1. Conspicuous consumption is purely competitive. There will never be a point where running faster stops being an advantage in a marathon. If everyone could afford five cars, then some people would still try to gain a status advantage by buying ten. 2. The dopamine hit from spending money is purely relative to the amount of money you have. As you earn and spend larger sums of money your brain adapts to expect even more. It's just like any addiction – a drug user will keep increasing doses forever until they reach some medical or financial constraint. 3. New "needs" are simply created. People get chemotherapy instead of simply dying at age 60 from cancer. People receive expensive mental health treatment from high-skilled practitioners which didn't used to exist. Most people used to be illiterate but now everyone needs a high school education, and more than half even need an expensive college education. 90% of people in the first world have enough money to get all of the things that very poor people "need". But we simply adjust to the new reality. People move to high COL cities and spend all of their money bidding up the cost of houses. It never ends.

ethbr0 5y ago

> Do you believe the customer's appetite for more and more garbage is truly infinite? https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/NFLX https://finance.yahoo.com/chart/NFLX Yes.

BeFlatXIII 5y ago
Netflix is also the company who said that sleep is one of the limiting factors to their growth. There are only 24 hours in a day and sleeping, eating, and going to work each consume a non-zero number of those.

fragmede 5y ago

Sure, but we're nowhere near the planet's maximal capacity, won't be for generations, if ever. By the time we're remotely near that, a Dyson sphere/ring could extend that for hundreds of generations more. The idea of maximal density may bring to mind dystopian sci-fi, but eg Judge Dredd's urbanized New England was less dense than Kowloon/Hong Kong is now. The demand curve, thus, is functionally infinite, same as the sun's lifespan. It'll expire after millions of years, but even my great grand children will be long gone by then, so the astrophysics of it mean that the statement "the sun will last forever" isn't literally true, but functionally, it is.

crazygringo 5y ago

You're making an awful lot of assumptions that consumer appetites are for "garbage". Yes there's absolutely cheap stuff made in China. But it's also critically-acclaimed novels and television series that speak to the issues of our day. It's desire to travel and experience other cultures. It's things like wanting to learn the basics of another language with Duolingo. Or it's medical advances. Yes I do think consumers will always want more improved or up-to-date things. But I also think it's awfully judgmental to perjoratively label those things "garbage".

theskypirate 5y ago

Of course demand is infinite. 1. Conspicuous consumption is purely competitive. There will never be a point where running faster stops being an advantage in a marathon. If everyone could afford five cars, then some people would still try to gain a status advantage by buying ten. 2. The dopamine hit from spending money is purely relative to the amount of money you have. As you earn and spend larger sums of money your brain adapts to expect even more. It's just like any addiction – a drug user will keep increasing doses forever until they reach some medical or financial constraint. 3. New "needs" are simply created. People get chemotherapy instead of simply dying at age 60 from cancer. People receive expensive mental health treatment from high-skilled practitioners which didn't used to exist. Most people used to be illiterate but now everyone needs a high school education, and more than half even need an expensive college education. 90% of people in the first world have enough money to get all of the things that very poor people "need". But we simply adjust to the new reality. People move to high COL cities and spend all of their money bidding up the cost of houses. It never ends.