the risk of leaving great numbers of people behind when change is
imposed
I'd guess it's that "change is imposed" part that made people laugh
at, eg, the ad for the dead-tree IKEA catalog spoofing Apple hyperbole.
My wife and I are fortunate in having enough capital that we may pick
and choose, attempting to sift through this vast flow of change for
the few flakes of novelty which actually improve our life.
Judging from what I read on the Internet (with whatever relation that
may have to reality), there are many people who do not have that
choice; this situation would be less disconcerting if my university
economics courses hadn't clearly stated that markets are only
efficient insofar as all parties are allocating (with perfect
information!) between real alternatives.
-Dave
(as to the original article: my father had horror stories of his
neighbor's Prius, which must be driven every couple of weeks lest the
auxiliary battery run down ... at which point it can be emergency
unlocked, but somehow not relocked, and in this particular case a 5-
year old had to be sent to squirm over the back seat to do whatever
Dr. Strangelove-esque manipulations were necessary to then get the
hatchback open so as to have sufficient access to recharge the
auxiliary. I had been thinking of kvetching to him that our latest
Landy is too fancy, and doesn't start as nicely after a night at -20
as earlier models did, but after hearing his story, I realized ours
was only a third world problem.)
