> The answer to this is pretty complex I guess, as voting with our wallets is historically pretty ineffective at enacting change. There are a lot of tricks that can be used to make hot garbage a top seller; Amazon is raking in billions doing just this and has been for years, despite constant outrage articles and proof of the garbage-ness of the services.
Yes, I agree, and I think this is a large part of the problem. If I get my neighbor John the blacksmith to make me a plow and it doesn't work quite right, I'm sure he'll fix it for me. That's a very short and direct economic chain, and it's based on personal relationships and geography, two things that humans do very well.
If I buy an over-featured electronic piece of crap from Alibaba, from the merchant who'll sell it for $1 less than the competition -- I don't think I can model or count the economy of that purchase.
And I think that the lack of personal relationships does more of a zap on our heads than we realize. We've not evolved to exist in a pathological environment, where a huge amount of the communication we receive is designed to manipulate us, and to our detriment. We yearn for real relationships we can trust, and over-index on signs of trust in vendors, like star ratings on Amazon. Amazon, who literally employs an army of people to game this as much as possible. It's an awfully asymmetric relationship.
Yes, I agree, and I think this is a large part of the problem. If I get my neighbor John the blacksmith to make me a plow and it doesn't work quite right, I'm sure he'll fix it for me. That's a very short and direct economic chain, and it's based on personal relationships and geography, two things that humans do very well.
If I buy an over-featured electronic piece of crap from Alibaba, from the merchant who'll sell it for $1 less than the competition -- I don't think I can model or count the economy of that purchase.
And I think that the lack of personal relationships does more of a zap on our heads than we realize. We've not evolved to exist in a pathological environment, where a huge amount of the communication we receive is designed to manipulate us, and to our detriment. We yearn for real relationships we can trust, and over-index on signs of trust in vendors, like star ratings on Amazon. Amazon, who literally employs an army of people to game this as much as possible. It's an awfully asymmetric relationship.