Xerographica wrote:Forsher wrote:Time is still our currency so that's the budget constraint taken care of. The next question is the utility of listening to music and everything that isn't doing that. This is like how consumer utilities for butter and milk-solids ultimately follow through to what the producer's going to offer. Based on the utility set up, the consumer will spend however much time to purchase however much listening to music time.
You can only prefer minutes over dollars if you perceive that minutes are a more accurate measure of usefulness. Because, if you perceived that minutes and dollars are equal measures of usefulness... then you would be indifferent which was used. I'd say, "Spotify should replace minutes with dollars." You'd say, "That's fine, the results will be exactly the same." There would be no debate/discussion/disagreement.
Given that you do obviously oppose replacing minutes with dollars, then you must perceive that minutes are a superior measure of usefulness. Personally, I have absolutely no reason to believe that minutes are a superior measure of usefulness. I obviously spend a lot more time in my threads than in other people's threads. Given the opportunity, I'd also spend a lot more dollars on my threads than on other people's threads.
What about books? From my perspective, by far the most useful book in the world is Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations. Let's say that Spotify and Amazon Kindle Unlimited were combined. If the Wealth of the Nations was one of the available titles, how would I divide my time between reading it and listening to music? I wouldn't spend any of my time reading the Wealth of Nations. I already read it. Instead, I'd spend far more time listening to music. Therefore, music is more useful to me than the Wealth of Nations? No. As usual, you forget the most fundamental economic question...
How should society's resources be divided?
Society's attention is an incredibly valuable resource. How do I want it divided between the Wealth of Nations and music? The only useful way to answer this question is by dollar division...
$10: Adam Smith - Wealth of Nations
$0: Blonde Redhead - Tons Confession
$0: Jamie xx - Gosh
$0: Weekend Wolves - You
$0: Hello Seahorse! - La Flotadera
$0: Kid Simius - The Flute Song
$0: Rone - Down for the Cause
$0: Jan Blomqvist - More
$0: Moderat - Running
$0: Bomb the Bass & Lali Puna - Recut
This really isn't how I divide my time between these things. But it is how I want society's attention divided between them.
This also contradicts your statements: your spending just told us that you don't want anybody to listen to any of that music ever.