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The best criticism and praise is not that consumers are scraping by. It is that the businesses that take their money have such a strong value proposition that t

The best criticism and praise is not that consumers are scraping by. It is that the businesses that take their money have such a strong value proposition that the consumer prefers that value to cash. What we do not have an answer for in capitalist thought, are businesses that rely on human failure - take the five blade razor. We have spent millions and millions of dollars on single use plastic to save a month of occasionally nicking our neck. That is not a failure of a sociological system, that is a failure of humans. Big money stays big by producing value, unfortunately humans are observed as having stupid values on a near constant basis, yes, even me - especially me!

bombolo 4y ago
> Big money stays big by producing value But mostly by offering no choice.
- jongjong 4y ago
  Yes, by ensuring that the average consumer is so poor that they are forced to use the cheapest possible option and then you produce that cheapest possible option for them. The big money beats the next cheapest product by a tiny fraction, but that's enough to take them out of the market completely. Then, in the absence of competition, the big money can start to boost its profit margins again.
  - subradios 4y ago
    The average consumer is not poor by any respect. The median household income in the United States is 45 ish thousand dollars. I made 20 ish thousand dollars a year for a long time, still had plenty of food, paid my bills, was even able to afford a car and to go out a fair bit.
    - jongjong 4y ago
      There's constant inflation. 20k doesn't buy you the same amount of value that it used to. It also depends on where you live. Many jobs require you to move to big cities were rent is expensive (fully remote opportunities are hard to get in practice). Also, it's difficult to buy a house in this economy as they cost much more than they used to relative to salaries.

bombolo 4y ago

> Big money stays big by producing value But mostly by offering no choice.

jongjong 4y ago
Yes, by ensuring that the average consumer is so poor that they are forced to use the cheapest possible option and then you produce that cheapest possible option for them. The big money beats the next cheapest product by a tiny fraction, but that's enough to take them out of the market completely. Then, in the absence of competition, the big money can start to boost its profit margins again.
- subradios 4y ago
  The average consumer is not poor by any respect. The median household income in the United States is 45 ish thousand dollars. I made 20 ish thousand dollars a year for a long time, still had plenty of food, paid my bills, was even able to afford a car and to go out a fair bit.
  - jongjong 4y ago
    There's constant inflation. 20k doesn't buy you the same amount of value that it used to. It also depends on where you live. Many jobs require you to move to big cities were rent is expensive (fully remote opportunities are hard to get in practice). Also, it's difficult to buy a house in this economy as they cost much more than they used to relative to salaries.