this post was submitted on 26 Jan 2026
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Economics brings the spherical cow issue to its logical extreme with “efficient markets”
If markets are driven by “rational actors” then why is advertising a trillion dollar industry?
They're just contributing to perfect information, or, uh...
I think a mainstream way of seeing things is that there's rational agents and non-rational agents, and they behave differently.
I.e. a lot of economy discusses how a rational agent would behave. But economic schools also recognize that not every human is a rational agent, and that's what advertisement is for. Basically, advertisement is a way to part fools and their money, i.e. give the money to more rational people instead. This is also partially justified with the philosophy that the world would become a better place if all the money (and therefore power) was in the hand of rational people.
This is the real point of econ. It's all about justifying inequalities.
Under their ideology the rational become rich and thus the most rich must be the most rational. And don't we want the world to be run by the most rational? Or do you want want those poor, gross, irrational agents?
It's an overt grift indicative of the deep rot in capitalist ideology.