Gerhard Fiedler wrote:
>>> This is correct, but it doesn't mean that it isn't horribly inefficient
>>> when you look at what this does on a larger scale (marketing etc.) --
>>> and that occasionally ranting against it may help increase our
>>> collective efficiency and make us -- in the long run, and collectively
>>> -- richer.
>>
>> You could say the same thing about advertizing (I mean, think how many
>> billions are wasted!) ...
>
> I do.
>
>> ... -- and be just as wrong.
>
> Just because you don't agree with me doesn't mean that I'm wrong.

Marketing and advertizing serve an important function in a free market: they 
connect sellers with buyers. A capitalist economy cannot function without 
advertizing -- I hope you're not going to argue the opposite?

Next, in a free market, the market forces determine just how much 
advertizing is "enough". Spending too much on advertizing hurts a company's 
bottom line, so the process is self-correcting.


>> There's nothing wrong with shipping a little popcorn with a PCB order.
>> Your PCBs would not cost any less, without the popcorn. Get over it.
>> :)
>
> Maybe not. But don't they say they are buying popcorn by the pallet? At
> the source, it's not one popcorn bag wasted, it's a lot of popcorn bags
> wasted.

Gerhard, put it in context. We're talking about one pallet of popcorn, 
purchased by a company that ships thousands of orders each month. And the 
overwhelming majority of its customers enjoy the popcorn. I know that we 
don't throw it away -- it gets eaten.


> This is not only about the money, this is also about waste. (Of
> course I know that some call wasting material and energy a way of life,
> but I happen not to agree with it -- which is a matter of opinion, I
> think, and therefore can't be wrong or right.)

No, quite the opposite. I am against waste, too -- so I think our interests 
are aligned.

Planned economies, where advertizing doesn't play much of a role, are the 
ones that are great at wasting resources. Some bureaucrat decides what gets 
produced and where, and how to get it from place A to place B. So you have 
carloads full off stuff that nobody wants, criss-crossing the country, 
wasting fuel.

I prefer the capitalist way.

Vitaliy 

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