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Useless stuf6/8/2023 By hyping Respirer, I’d give consumers something to want, and in order to be able to afford it, they’d have to work-to be productive. So how could this clearly useless product have a beneficial effect on the economy? It would motivate people. Of course, it would be just air, and in most places you could get all the reasonably high-quality air you wanted free. (Kate Winslet starts every day with Respirer!) In a matter of months, department stores would be selling out, and spas would brag that their saunas piped in pure Respirer air.Īs we continue to redefine capitalism, let’s not discount the role of aspiration and the desire for luxuries in fueling productivity. (Fewer than 10 parts per trillion of particulate in every bottle!) Celebrities would endorse Respirer’s rejuvenating effects. My advertisements would laud Respirer’s purity, evoking bracing mountain air. I’d call them Respirer (ress-pire-AY-it’s French!). Imagine that I started a business selling beautiful bottles of air for $10. About understanding, as Michael Porter and Mark Kramer suggest ( “Creating Shared Value,” HBR January–February 2011), that not all profits are created equal: Profits derived from making the world better are superior to those derived from the consumption of useless, or even harmful, junk.Īt the risk of touching the third rail, I propose that getting people to want things they don’t really need may be far more valuable to society than we think. About creating things because they’re good for society. There’s been plenty of talk lately-in these pages and elsewhere-about a new kind of capitalism.
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