[alexanderstears]

> I don't think capitalism has a good answer to this problem.

Let me put on my capitalist apologist hat.

It used to be the case that people bought light bulbs regularly. When I grew up, my parents had a cache of incandescent light bulbs - then they started buying fluorescent lights and we replaced bulbs much less often. Now, they're starting to buy LED lights and I don' think an LED has ever 'burned out' on them.

The revenues are down, but as people shift from buying disposable light bulbs to durable light bulbs, they're willing to pay more for better bulbs.

So now manufacturers are competing on building better bulbs / bulbs that are more valuable. It's a really good thing for the world, we're using fewer resources and making a better product.

I don't know much about guitars but I'd bet it's better to make high quality guitars than low quality guitars right now. And you're absolutely right that we're getting closer to the 'right amount' of guitars in the world. At some point, we'll really only need to build guitars to replace ones that we lose.

The capitalist answer to businesses who count on infinite growth is "market correction". Either guitar makers will find a way to stay in business or they'll go bankrupt and free up resources for better use.

[tobr]

Aren't incandescent light bulbs pretty much the poster child of the problems with capitalism's expectations of infinite growth? It is possible to create incandescent light bulbs with extremely long life time, but it doesn't make much economic sense, so no one does.

[alexanderstears]

Choose your own adventure on whether this is a good or bad thing.

I'd defend the light industry as an example of creative destruction, candles and lanterns gave way to incandescent, florescent, and L.E.D.

I have no doubt that someone nerfed their incandescent bulbs to make more money, but that probably made it easier for people to buy alternatives so good riddence.

It's akin to oil - the oil producers had their day in the sun when it was $100 barrel but because it was $100/barrel, people started to talk about how to use less oil or extract hydrocarbons more cheaply.

Now we have electric cars and fracking. Sure, capitalism is the reason OPEC got greedy, but capitalism is the reason we explored alternatives.

If it's an ideology, capitalism is best practiced as 'understanding the questions' than 'knowing the answers'. The questions capitalists should ask are 1) how do I add value? 2) How do I capture enough value to invest in adding more value?

If they think the answer to their questions is "make enough money that it doesn't matter" they're going to walk the same road to hell that Enron, Worldcom, and Saudi Arabia find themselves on.