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> This kind of transaction is exactly what modern capitalism is trying to stamp out. The author is attributing intentionality to something that has no free wil

> This kind of transaction is exactly what modern capitalism is trying to stamp out. The author is attributing intentionality to something that has no free will or even sentience. Capitalism and the market economy are simply people who owns things and who make decisions to buy things. People need/want a certain item, value it to a certain extent, and are willing to part with some number of dollars to receive that value. If a large number of people do not highly value an item (e.g., sofas), then they will not be willing to allocate a large number of dollars towards it, so companies that charge a high dollar amount will not be able to collect them. If you are 'forcing' such companies to exist, then they have to be able to collect monies to not go bankrupt, which basically means you are forcing these high(er) prices onto the public. If the individuals who make up the public are not interested in these high(er)-cost items why should they be forced to pay the money to buy them instead of allocating their dollars to something they do value? (Of course the prices need to reflect all the costs associated with making them, which is where things like (e.g.) carbon pricing comes in for the environment.)

TeMPOraL 2y ago
> The author is attributing intentionality to something that has no free will or even sentience. Capitalism and the market economy are simply people who owns things and who make decisions to buy things. In the same sense the human brain has no intentionality or sentience - it's simply neurons wired together, trading chemicals and jolting each other for shits and giggles. Sometimes a high-level process works in a way not obvious from looking at individual parts, or even dependent on them. See also: corporations are effectively alien minds, AIs executing on top of a runtime made of humans. > People need/want a certain item, value it to a certain extent, and are willing to part with some number of dollars to receive that value. If a large number of people do not highly value an item (...) That breaks down in practice, because people have finite time and energy to evaluate and make choices, while sellers have a lot of leeway in plain lying to their customers. As a result, people mostly chose out of what's available, and quietly endure it being shit.
jprete 2y ago
There's value in identifying what the incentive structure is doing even if it can only be expressed in anthropomorphic terms.

TeMPOraL 2y ago

> The author is attributing intentionality to something that has no free will or even sentience. Capitalism and the market economy are simply people who owns things and who make decisions to buy things. In the same sense the human brain has no intentionality or sentience - it's simply neurons wired together, trading chemicals and jolting each other for shits and giggles. Sometimes a high-level process works in a way not obvious from looking at individual parts, or even dependent on them. See also: corporations are effectively alien minds, AIs executing on top of a runtime made of humans. > People need/want a certain item, value it to a certain extent, and are willing to part with some number of dollars to receive that value. If a large number of people do not highly value an item (...) That breaks down in practice, because people have finite time and energy to evaluate and make choices, while sellers have a lot of leeway in plain lying to their customers. As a result, people mostly chose out of what's available, and quietly endure it being shit.

jprete 2y ago

There's value in identifying what the incentive structure is doing even if it can only be expressed in anthropomorphic terms.