http://www.concurringopinions.com/archives/2008/06/is_undercover_m.html

I heard Conley’s podcast and I think his most persuasive point is that American companies are putting more and more energy into better packaging, and less into creating better products. I do like his effort to promote the “real” and demote the “superficial.” But on the other hand, how much better can a Kleenex really get? If I were trying to sell more of them, I don’t know how I’d improve it objectively–I’d just try to market it better.

Perhaps a capitalist economy automatically wastes more money on wasteful competition among firms for market share as opportunities for true innovation in the quality of the product fade. Advertising becomes a form of positional competition–Company A would not have to do any if its competitors could all sign an “arms control agreement” not to advertise, but as soon as one does, they all have to. And perhaps in the grand scheme of things, advanced capitalist societies sow the seeds for their own destruction by wasting money on such superfluous things, allowing rising powers to take control of the resources (such as oil, timber, and farmland) that have genuine value.