Re: OT Hot paper

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> The myth is based on the confusion of sales with profits. Companies
seek to maximize profits, not sales.

This perfectly reasonable example leaves one important factor out
of the equation: Moore's law. (Patricia).>
There are other important factors, too. For example, the need for
corporations to occupy a workforce steadily. Supposing the ten-year
light bulb could be made profitably, as Harry describes. Supposing it
would require some slightly longer amount of time to build one of them
than to build the sort which lasts only one year. What is the workforce
going to do the rest of the nine years waiting for the first generation
of bulbs to burn out? The manufacturer is going to pay them to sit
around on their buttocks?
Also, most consumers buy on price (that's how Wal-Mart got to be the
world's number one retailer); only a few consumers buy quality
regardless of price. And even those who do buy quality, don't buy
everything on quality. They buy only some things for quality regardless
of price, and the rest they buy on price. One consumer might buy a top
quality automobile and his light bulbs on price; the next consumer might
buy quality light bulbs but cut-rate cars.