Today’s links The cod-Marxism of personalized pricing: From each to their ability, to each according to their need? Picks and Shovels Chapter One (Part 3): DEFINITELY not a pyramid scheme. Hey look at this: Delights to delectate. This day in history: 2005, 2010, 2015, 2020, 2024. Upcoming appearances: Where to find me. Recent appearances: Where I’ve been. Latest books: You keep readin’ em, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Upcoming books: Like I said, I’ll keep writin’ ’em. Colophon: All the rest. The cod-Marxism of personalized pricing (permalink) The social function of the economics profession is to explain, over and over again, that your boss is actually right and that you don’t really want the things you want, and you’re secretly happy to be abused by the system. If that wasn’t true, why would your “choose” commercial surveillance, abusive workplaces and other depredations? In other words, economics is the “look what you made me do” stick that capitalism uses to beat us with. We wouldn’t spy on you, rip you off or steal your wages if you didn’t choose to use the internet, shop with monopolists, or work for a shitty giant company. The technical name for this ideology is “public choice theory”: https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/05/regulatory-capture/ Of all the terrible things that economists say we all secretly love, one of the worst is “price discrimination.” This is the idea that different customers get charged different amounts based on the merchant’s estimation of their ability to pay. Economists insist that this is “efficient” and makes…Pluralistic: The cod-Marxism of personalized pricing; Picks and Shovels Chapter One (Part 3) (11 Jan 2025)