I, for one, have Serious Concerns about the monopoly JK Rowling has over the ideas in her own headhttps://twitter.com/RBReich/status/1220481483002937344 …
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Replying to @webdevMason @paulg
You actually can make an argument that top-end mass media producers (music, film...) are rent-extractors because they create a social equilibrium where everyone goes to see the thing that everyone else sees so they can talk to each other about it...
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... so the private value to each viewer of the film/song/book exceeds the total social value (alternatively stated, each viewer contributes to the feeling-of-missing-out among non-viewers which is a negative externality) ...
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.... but in practice I don't think this is worth worrying about because the possibility of piracy already acts as downward pressure on prices to keep them reasonable. ie. govts regulating media pricing is a bad idea because the pricing is "regulated" by The Pirate Bay already.
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Replying to @VitalikButerin @paulg
"Negative externality" is a weird take on the organic generation of a cultural schelling point but ok
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Replying to @webdevMason @paulg
The argument may be easier to see if you substitute "JK Rowling's work" with eg. "Facebook". But I would agree that the effects in the former case are much milder than in the latter case
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Replying to @VitalikButerin @paulg
I'd argue that one might sooner bite the *other* bullet than favor a world that broadly hamstrings its own ability to navigate search space for the best stuff
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Replying to @webdevMason @paulg
Who is proposing hamstringing the ability to navigate the search space for the best stuff?
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Replying to @VitalikButerin @paulg
You've described one major process by which this occurs as a "negative externality." Maybe you're defining that in some way other than what I'm accustomed to.
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Replying to @webdevMason @paulg
*Having* a negative externality, not *being* a negative externality. The point is that one component of the motivation to see popular things comes specifically from their popularity-qua-popularity, and not their quality-as-evidenced-by-their-popularity.
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I just tend to assume that virality is adaptive, and that the apparent quality of e.g. Harry Potter even on sober reflection should be reassuring. If anything, I'd pick on the social status goods that *don't* gain value as they're made *more* accessible, e.g. Rolex watches
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Replying to @webdevMason @paulg
That is all true. But I do also feel like the "want to see X because other people have seen X regardless of quality just to know what they're talking about" thing is genuine; I've certainly had that urge myself.
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Wealth signaling is zero sum, while that's less obvious for movies. Maybe a bad movie that people feel compelled to watch to show they're cultured would also have a negative externality.
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