Brent Clanfield Post #7

While reading Economix, there are many striking things. One page that really struck me was pg. 170. This page talks about the "need to sell" for businesses is more important than the customer's need to buy. This is something I never thought of, but the comics and examples show how it makes perfect sense.

One of the examples he shows is disposable items. The "big business man" describes the disposable razors, water bottles, etc. as being convenient. Meanwhile, the average consumer questions how buying the same thing over and over is truly convenient. This is true. Disposable items are really only a convenient way of making money for businesses. We don't need disposable water bottles. Buy one Nalgeen and you're set for LIFE.

Another example is the idea that businesses sell items that are designed to become irrelevant in a few years. The main example he shows is him holding an MP3 player. Apple products are a perfect example of this. Is the iPhone 8 that much better than the iPhone 7? Not really. Yet, something about it makes you need to have it. Next year, a new iPhone will come out. There will be one small feature that is different about it that isn't really necessary, but you will have to have it. For all we know, they have the technology to make the iPhone 22, but they will slowly give us one new feature every year just to make us keep buying their phones. Smart business. Probably not the smartest way to spend money as a consumer. That said, I do love my iPhone X. Oh, and nothing is better than an ice cold bottle of Dasani.

The need to sell for businesses is infatuating, and it makes me enjoy my iPhone just as much as Goodwin is enjoying his old-school MP3 player that is extremely out-dated now.