Re:Fred Rogers wouldn't have wanted to appear in a Google ad
by avar on Sunday November 04, 2018 @03:52PM
(#18378002)
> You don't see advertisements for the ballpoint pen any more
Google "Ballpoint pen" and you get a whole top row of sponsored links trying to sell ballpoint pens to me.
But sure, ballpoint pens aren't advertised on prime-time TV like products sold to 20-something trying to get an edge on the dating life (deodorant, hairspray etc.). That's an especially lucrative market, but not the target audience of most products.
> Macro-economically speaking, is this a company or industry that should keep on growing? The point of capitalism was supposed to be that there was competition in R&D[...]
One of the main points of capitalism is to decentralize the decision making about what's worthwhile economic activity to a bunch of uncoerced individual decisions.
Does that result in a bunch of money being spent on "pointless" products? Sure, but who's to say what's so important that everyone should do without it?
Google "Ballpoint pen" and you get a whole top row of sponsored links trying to sell ballpoint pens to me.
But sure, ballpoint pens aren't advertised on prime-time TV like products sold to 20-something trying to get an edge on the dating life (deodorant, hairspray etc.). That's an especially lucrative market, but not the target audience of most products.
> Macro-economically speaking, is this a company or industry that should keep on growing? The point of capitalism was supposed to be that there was competition in R&D[...]
One of the main points of capitalism is to decentralize the decision making about what's worthwhile economic activity to a bunch of uncoerced individual decisions.
Does that result in a bunch of money being spent on "pointless" products? Sure, but who's to say what's so important that everyone should do without it?