A Joosr Guide to… Phishing for Phools by George Akerlof and Robert Shiller

Not all companies deceive us because they are selfish and immoral: they may be forced into it in order to compete with other businesses that are already making large profits by manipulating us.

year after year people bought new cars that they didn’t actually need, just because the slight improvements and clever marketing made the new model seem fresh and exciting.
General Motors’ innovation has now become the standard business model across many industries, and changed the relationship between the consumer and the market. Previously, what the consumer needed dictated what the market produced, but with this model clever marketing convinced the consumer that they desired whatever new product the market created, even if they owned another version that was still perfectly functional.
Nowadays, we see this all the time: our phones need to be updated; our clothes are no longer in fashion;

No matter how many products we buy, it often seems that we never have enough things, or the latest models. One of the key reasons for this is that the free market constantly creates new desires, reminding us that what we own is outmoded and obsolete and encouraging us to buy new things to feed new “needs.”

Contrary to popular economic theory, we don’t always make informed or sensible decisions. A lot of the products we buy are not things we want but simply things we have a knee-jerk desire for, and many companies both encourage and profit from this.

Most economic theory is premised on the assumption that consumers make rational decisions and choose things that are in their best interests. This is especially true of free market economics, which suggests that the market only provides what consumers want. The problem is that, as consumers, we often choose irrationally, picking things that are bad for us, things we don’t really want but seem like a good idea at the time.