a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment
NotPhil  ·  4534 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: You Choose, They Lose: The Psychology of Income Inequality
Yes. Remember those articles from a few years back talking about all those choices which overwhelm us in the market? I don't think they were talking about real choices at all, just trivial selections which irritate us because they're so meaningless. Which color? Which style? Which marketing adjective? Which brand?

But those selections only apply to whatever product is most profitable for suppliers at the moment. We aren't allowed significant choices. As Chomsky put it:

    If I want to get home from work, the market offers me a choice between a Ford and a Toyota, but not between a car and a subway.

Not to mention that the range of things we can make a selection on is severely limited by our income.