From Tim Harford's Logic of Life, an input-output theory of legislation: "Here's a surefire vote-winner: Take $1.9 billion from a large number of voters, distribute $1 billion to a small number of voters and throw away the rest." When you put it that way it really sounds silly. But this particular bill, a subsidy for the sugar industry, passes year after year. This is an example of a big problem with representative government - a small focused interest beats a widespread, unfocused one every time, to the detriment of the widespread. The arguments used are rarely logical, and largely irrelevant.
I went to Carmel last weekend, and saw a woman feeding squirrels literally one foot away from a sign begging visitors not to feed the squirrels and to let them find their own food. My brother asked her why she was feeding the squirrels. Her response: "Oh - well this food is from Whole Foods, so it's okay."
Finally, from the latest Battlestar Galactica episode title, from Ken Kesey's book Sometimes a Great Notion, from the song "Goodnight, Irene:"
Sometimes I live in the country,
Sometimes I live in town,
Sometimes I have a great notion;
To jump in into the river and drown
The singer goes on to say, "Go home to your wife and your family" - focus on your relations with those that matter, and avoid vice where you can.
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which says among other things that our preferences, spending habits, and performance on simple tasks are arbitrary and thus easily manipulated. For example, we prefer something when we're presented with a slightly inferior version of the same product, even if we wouldn't be interested in the product otherwise. Or, pricier medicine is more effective than cheap medicine.
Corporations take advantage of our irrationality to sell us overpriced things, create demand where none existed and convince us we are having a good time. They are, in a sense, seeking rent and profiting from our irrationality. When humans lived in hunter-gatherer tribes, corporations didn't exist - we didn't have to deal with high-pressure sales pitches, budgets, or people we didn't know. Biologically, our brains aren't well prepared to deal with their tactics.
So I don't doubt that companies peddle in our irrationality. That's not to say that corporations are evil; often times companies provide us with valuable time-saving services, or at the least convince us that we're having a good time, or value the product they pitch more than the money in our pocket.
Has irrationality served us well? As we become more aware of our flaws, will we strive to be more rational? If we become more rational, corporations won't be as able to lure us in with a promise of free stuff, or brand loyalty, or price premiums.
I think women will always be irrational; it's more important for them to consume conspicuously, live luxuriously, and show off when they can. As long as this is true, corporations will exist to define luxury, create demand for scarce, expensive products products (such as