Comparison left vs right for a craftsman who doesnt know which one he should buy:

  • l/r same bed size

  • r lower bed for way easier loading/unloading

  • r less likely to crash

  • r less fuel consumption and costs

  • r less expensive to repair

  • r easy to park

  • r easy to get around in narrow places like crowded construction sites or towns

  • r not participating in road arms race

  • l You get taken serious by your fellow carbrained americans because ““trucks”” are normalized and small handy cars are ridiculed.

So unless you are a fragile piece of human, choose the right one.

  • SCB@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    What’s important for you specifically is not what is important to the customer base writ large.

    You have problems with fellow consumers that you blame on manufacturers.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That doesn’t even make sense in the logic you’ve presented. Shareholders want to maximize value, which means selling more things to consumers, which means selling things consumers want.

        If your entire worldview falls apart at the slightest scrutiny, it may be time to re-evaluate said worldview.

        • Kythtrid@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          When you consider that marketing is intended to manipulate consumers into thinking they want your product, it’s more about convincing people that your product has value, and that they need it, rather than selling something that consumers actually need.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            You are not the arbiter on what people “need,” and people do not only purchase or consume things based on “need.” As a hilariously easy example, neither of us “needs” to be here right now having this conversation.

            Again, it’s time to re-evaluate the entire worldview

            • Kythtrid@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              I never claimed to be the arbiter of what people need, but im just saying consumers dont have as much freewill as they claim when they’re actively being manipulated at every corner. Marketing is literally intended to make you feel like you need a product you didn’t previously want.

              • SCB@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Consumers absolutely have free will. Do you have free will? You’re not unique.

                Also that is not the purpose of marketing. Marketing is designed to A) raise awareness of a product and B) show how the product is superior to other products.

                Throw out the brain rot my dude.

                • Kythtrid@sh.itjust.works
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                  1 year ago

                  I didn’t say they had no freewill, i said.

                  Consumers do not have as much freewill as they claim

                  And no, that is exactly the purpose of marketing, as defined in my college marketing classes. Marketing is designed to “Create value” for a product to a consumer. That is to say, make them feel like they want to buy it. And as far as tactics, its all manipulation.

                  • SCB@lemmy.world
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                    1 year ago

                    There is a no percent chance you got a good grade in that class of you don’t understand the concept of creating value

                    Gonna go ahead and assume that was an undergrad class

        • 🐱TheCat@sh.itjust.works
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          1 year ago

          Look up manufactured scarcity. Great way to make money for shareholders without providing more to consumers. You charge them more for less. Notice any of that recently? Notice any record breaking profits in any industries? Notice any shortages of important things like IDK … housing!!!

          I’ll also give you another example of capitalists not giving a fuck about what consumers want: electric cars back in the 1990s. The auto manufacturers realized they would lose their parts and repair businesses, as electric vehicles have fewer moving parts, the oil companies got pissed, so they put some power together and used the federal government to overturn californias electric car act that consumers voted for. The also forcefully recalled electric cars from consumers and crushed them. They did not care if there was demand if they could make more money in the short term by staying the same.

          Hell, the very existence of exxon mobile disproves your ideas that companies will innovate in response to demand because they spent their money lying to the public about climate change so they could avoid any innovation at all for as long as possible. So WTF do you mean they care about demand?

          Your logic that capitalists only do what consumers want is whats basic and flawed. If thats true, WTF is advertising? You think it’s just a fun hobby that doesn’t work? If advertising doesn’t create false demand, why do it? We have evidence advertising creates demand, therefore advertising works, therefore you need to adjust your worldview to allow for the fact that some amount of the shit that consumers buy is nothing more than light brainwashing. Including you dear.

          • SCB@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            The difference is that efficient demand incentivizes h switchover. You’re blaming businesses for… Not leading with changes their customers don’t want

            • 🐱TheCat@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              I guess I shouldn’t have tried to talk about several concepts at once since your brain skipped past the manufactured scarcity concept, which is far more integral to capitalism.

              https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_scarcity

              Note that capitalists have been practicing the art of ‘just burn the shit I can’t sell so no one can have it’ since the Dutch East India company burned islands full of spices to make them rarer. O such innovation

    • spiphy@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Given the usage patterns, most people in the US do not need large trucks. They have been convinced that need them because the auto manufacturers make a lot of money selling trucks.

      • FlexibleToast@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        That’s why the compact trucks are selling like hot cakes. People want trucks, but they don’t necessarily want these behemoths. I love my Santa Cruz.

        • snooggums@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Even compact trucks are not nearly as small as light trucks from a couple decades ago before regulations encouraged manufacturers to go bigger to avoid penalties.

          Basically if you have two trucks with the same engine, but on a smaller wheelbase, the smaller one might be penalized for not being fuel efficient enough while the larger one isn’t. Might as well go big to avoid the cost.