Thread by @spacetwinks

the more i think about streaming services and how they're destroying tons of creative fields and the people in them but they're also increasingly all most people (including creatives) can afford, the more i think about... car manufacturers

this is connected, i promise

bout 5-6 years ago there was a spate of "millennials aren't buying cars anymore" articles for a while. usual nonsense, but a thing that stuck out to me was that car companies couldn't seem to grasp "people are poor", and instead thought the problem was "people like iphones more"

now, of course, companies and the wealthy and news outlets not grasping "people are broke" isn't new, but i think that chunk of articles clicked something together in my brain, which is something i'm gonna call "phantom money"

the thing is, people are broke, yes, and people can't afford cars, yes, or any number of various other things and services, yes.

but! these broke people are also employed by many of these industries and companies themselves. intentionally underpaid by these baffled companies.

so you've got all these companies, none of whom paying any of their employees enough to live much less use as disposable income, and are baffled that people aren't buying their products or using their services

which is where we get to "phantom money"

no company rep outright says it, but you read all these interviews, and you especially talk to people with experiences in SV, and you get the distinct feeling that the thoughts in everyone's head is "sure, *i'm* not paying people enough - but *someone* has to be, to buy my stuff"

this phantom money, this non-existent, hypothetical source of income for people working at all these companies - businesses operating as if there is nobody who is genuinely poor, including their own employees. they just get money from a hypothetical elsewhere.

so with car companies, none of 'em can grasp "oh people can't afford our shit anymore, which includes our own employees", and same goes for streaming services, which assumes everyone *can* afford every new service, and is just choosing not to. failure of marketing instead of $$$

spotify's royalties are rotten even for incredibly well known artists, and yet the industry chugs along as if everyone has additional income arriving from a black hole or something. nobody has to pay better, so long as you assume a hypothetical person is already doing so

people choose streaming services over buying to own not just due to a matter of convenience, but because it's increasingly all they can afford. every company gets their own streaming service, then gets baffled that everyone isn't signing up for them. disposable income is assumed.

it's too inconvenient for companies to wrap their heads around - people can't be genuinely poor, because then they wouldn't be able to buy their product. but also them drastically underpaying their own employees can't be considered part of the problem.

so: phantom money.

i can bring this back to comics too, because of course i can. marvel comics being the best example, which is no surprise, with ike perlmutter still having power there, who is notorious as being like ebenezer scrooge x10.

floppy comics prices have drastically increased over the years without 1. an increase in actual page content and far more importantly, 2. without increase in the income of the people actually buying comics. crucially, this includes the people *making* the comics too.

not only have prices gone up, but so has the sheer *number* of marvel comics, thanks to things like crossover events and weekly series, and weekly crossover events. almost every single issue costs 4 dollars - or more. and they want you to spend, spend, spend.

the number of people in comics who could afford to spend like that every week weren't great in number even during the boom years of the 90s speculation market, and they sure as hell have shrunk in the 10s. most people - including the creators themselves - can't spend like that.

but, the business can't operate as if people genuinely can't afford these things - because then the whole model of maximizing profit while underpaying your employees is a rickety sham. instead of witnessing the rickety sham... the business assumes people have phantom money.

which includes, again, their own employees. marvel comics is notorious for not even giving their award winning creators comps of their own work, among other things. which, no surprise, ike perlmutter is still connected there. ike does shit like this.

the people who make the products can't afford the products because the companies aren't paying them enough. every other company also isn't paying their employees enough. and every company is going "sure, *i* don't pay enough - but *someone* has to be".

which gets you the car companies, and the streaming service. the car company doesn't think the problem is that you're broke, it's that you like the internet too much. the streaming services don't think you're broke, they think they haven't marketed to you right.

whole industries can't wrap their head around "people are broke" because that would upset the whole model. first it would stop dead the whole "infinite growth" idea, secondly it brings up the uncomfortable notion that they'd need to pay their own employees more.

but recognizing this reality would affect the profits and the business and everything so they just... don't. they assume people have money they don't have, and they simply haven't figured out the right way to get you to hand it over.

this is, of course, an unsustainable model, but they'll keep doing it as long as they can.

and it's not like they'll suffer the consequences when it falls apart.