Housekeepers’ union campaign against “disqualiflation” in hotel cleaning. My latest Bloomberg Opinion column is explained well in an excellent subhead (contrary to popular assumptions, writers don’t craft the headlines or subheads that appear on their work): “Packaging less stuff for the same price doesn’t fool consumers or economists. But diminishing quality imposes equally maddening extra costs that are almost impossible to measure.” Excerpt:
If you read "Badly Made in China" you will find the phenomenon of "quality fade" which is very similar to "disqualiflation". In both cases, it is a way to give the customer less while charging the same price.
The importers are mad about "quality fade" in China mostly because the money saved goes to the factory owner rather than to the importer.
An old friend once annoyed me greatly by suggesting that taking Paxil wasn’t a good thing (a mindset I see as comparable to that of using adjectives editorially in news stories). All I can say is, the Paxil ad where a women says “I feel like myself again” completely described my experience when, a week or so after being on the medication, while sitting on my front porch, looking out at the tree-lined street, I had that exact same sensation (this was years before seeing the ad). I don’t know the mechanism, but it felt like an adjustment, likely chemical, inasmuch as the only thing that had changed was ingesting the Paxil. So for me, my disapproving friend, who also tended to disapprove of depression, may just as well have said I shouldn’t take insulin were I a diabetic (which, thankfully, I am not).
Shrinkflation, Disqualiflation, and Depression and more
If you read "Badly Made in China" you will find the phenomenon of "quality fade" which is very similar to "disqualiflation". In both cases, it is a way to give the customer less while charging the same price.
The importers are mad about "quality fade" in China mostly because the money saved goes to the factory owner rather than to the importer.
An old friend once annoyed me greatly by suggesting that taking Paxil wasn’t a good thing (a mindset I see as comparable to that of using adjectives editorially in news stories). All I can say is, the Paxil ad where a women says “I feel like myself again” completely described my experience when, a week or so after being on the medication, while sitting on my front porch, looking out at the tree-lined street, I had that exact same sensation (this was years before seeing the ad). I don’t know the mechanism, but it felt like an adjustment, likely chemical, inasmuch as the only thing that had changed was ingesting the Paxil. So for me, my disapproving friend, who also tended to disapprove of depression, may just as well have said I shouldn’t take insulin were I a diabetic (which, thankfully, I am not).