Puzzling but wonderful

Adding another random thought to this theme:

= = = = = START REPRINT:

The teams are getting narrower and narrower and more specialized, in all fields. In pro athletics, every game or race is between two identical performers who are at the top of their range, and the difference has to be measured in microseconds or millimeters. In automobiles all cars are purely identical, all cranked up to infinite horsepower and infinite weight and 0-60 in 0 seconds. All maxed out and all utterly absurd. In stock crimes the traders pay millions of dollars to gain an arbitrage advantage of picopicoseconds, and then the advantage is instantly wiped out because all the competitors adopt the same new tech. In politics all competitors are perfectly brainless and perfectly incapable of normal problem solving or normal speech or normal behavior or normal anything. Maxed out incestuous infantile monstrosities, stupider and eviler and crazier than anything you could find in the worst prison or insane asylum.

= = = = = END REPRINT.

Adding: All of these peculiar entertainments are also WILDLY EXPENSIVE. This busts the old “economies of scale” notion all to hell. These monstrosities are highly standardized and uniform in every way. Their appeal to customers IS the standardization, the undetectable differences between Team A and Team B. Customers pay millions for the privilege of watching or participating in these mass-produced identical non-competitions.

In real life, standardized products are cheap and unique products are expensive. Campbells Soup is cheaper than a haute cuisine restaurant meal. Chevies are cheaper than custom-made limousines. This is familiar and easily understood.

Why do the absolutely uniform major league sports command the highest price, while a unique sandlot basketball game is cheap? Why does stock trading require billions to enter, while haggling over a unique old record in a thrift shop is cheap?

In the end, this is a VERY GOOD THING. The people who appreciate a homemade sandwich or a homemade bookshelf are getting the best and most artistic products for a very low price. We should count our blessings.