Individuals typically fit in with the fashions of their time rather than entirely invent their own. What happens to be popular during our lifespans, and especially our younger lives when we more often seek fashionable options, is a matter of luck. Most of us have only a slight impact on these decisions. What are the unintended consequences that can follow? Continue reading “Victims of Fashion”
Visibility of Cost
Costs work differently depending on who pays and when they pay. These questions of “who” and “when” and innovations that change them are second-order effects that impact what society gets more or less of.
Some products come with only a cost of production, paid first by the producer and then pushed on to the purchasing customer. This is in spite of the products themselves creating external costs that greater society or specific individuals must bear later on. Other products have these external costs built in at the point of production. In either case, the type and severity of the costs can vary. These costs may be unseen to the product’s end customer, but it is the difference in cost type that changes behavior and leads to unintended consequences. Continue reading “Visibility of Cost”