Oh great, more ways for Facebook to sell our data while profiting immensely from it.

~Lordbob

JMH said:

zigzag3143 said:

As usual the large companies make profit off the people who can afford it least.

Profit is what drives the economy - so we are led to believe.

I have no doubt that it does (especially after taking economics).
However, that does not mean that EXCESSIVE profit is good, nor is sleazy advertising like this.

This just pisses me off and drives me away.

~Lordbob

JMH said:

Lordbob75 said:

JMH said:

Profit is what drives the economy - so we are led to believe.

I have no doubt that it does (especially after taking economics).

However, that does not mean that EXCESSIVE profit is good, nor is sleazy advertising like this.

This just pisses me off and drives me away.

~Lordbob

M'Lord,
You'll never make an ideal economist. Isn't it only the figures that count?

In reality I agree with you.

Oh, I understand it in perspective well enough. If I look from their view, this is a great opportunity. Not only will customers now POST their shopping lists and wish lists on Facebook, Facebook will sell them back to me! Imagine that! From there, Facebook can tailor YOUR advertisements to their users, increasing their sales.
After that, they should see an increase in sales as people find out about products, sale pricing, and become used to more tailored advertising. They will be completely unaware that their shopping habits are not just being watched, but closely monitored, recorded, and analyzed to create a more user-specific advertising gambit created solely to sell more things that they don't need to people that can't afford it.

In the end, this only hurts the economy. As those people buy more and more, and they rack up more and more debt, they will go into bankruptcy. From there, they cannot contribute to the economy and become a burden instead. They will not buy the products of the company because they cannot afford them. Even if they could, they can no longer afford a computer and internet access, so tailored advertising of this nature is useless.
From there, they have to rely on Government food stamps and welfare (OH NO! SOCIALISM! FASCISM! COMMUNISM! AMERICA IS LOST!!!). This places an unfair burden on the nations populace, who pay for it through increased taxes (causing a loss of sales). If taxes are not raised, then the government can no longer pay for them, and goes into debt, deeper and deeper. Then, when the company has vastly drained the populace of their money through their tailored advertising, they go bankrupt, causing more economic strife, and a crash in the stock market.

Hmmm, that sounds oddly familiar doesn't it?

Since that is simply following the cause and effect chain, that would make me a true economist
The ones that said figures only count are the ones who are too stupid to think more than about 1 month ahead.

~Lordbob

JMH said:

You're "doomed" to see throught the "smoke & mirrors" [unlike the other 99%] - it is a life sentence.

Indeed. I often wonder how so many people can be so blind.
It definitely is both a curse and a gift. I will not be fooled, but I am cursed to forever agonize over why no one else gets it....

I run into this problem at school often. Most people I know HATED econ with a PASSION, while I found it both interesting and relevant. Some of the assignments were stupid and I didn't like doing them, but it gave me the understanding of basic econ I wanted.
Same goes for physics. Today in class we were discussing relativistic speeds, and the change in mass that occurs. The teacher said (somewhat jokingly) that he was scared to teach us about the relative mass laws, and asked if we should just stop. Most of the class was like, AGH NO! Lets stop, please! Only one other person and I said we were actually interested in why E = mc^2.

Shame that more people don't care HOW things work, so long as they do.

~Lordbob