Why? FT.com asked some leading economists:
Economist | Reason this page isn’t here |
---|---|
Stagflation | The cost of pages rose drastically, while the page production rate slowed down. |
General economics | There was no market for it. |
Liquidity traps | We injected some extra money into the technology team but there was little or no interest so they simply kept it, thus failing to stimulate the page economy. |
Pareto inefficiency | There exists another page that will make everyone better off without making anyone worse off |
Supply and demand | Demand increased and a shortage occurred. |
Classical economics | There is no such page. We are not going to interfere. |
Keynesian economics | Aggregate demand for this page did not necessarily equal the productive capacity of the website. |
Malthusianism/Thanos-ism | Unchecked, exponential page growth outstripped the pixel supply. There was a catastrophe, and now the population is at a lower, more sustainable level. |
Neo-Malthusianism | To avoid unchecked, exponential page growth outstripping the pixel supply and leading to an inevitable catastrophe, we prevented this page from being conceived. |
Marxism | The failure of this page to load is a consequence of the inherent contradictions in the capitalist mode of production. |
Laissez Faire Capitalism | We know this page is needed, but we can’t force anyone to make it. |
Monetarism | The government has limited the number of pages in circulation. |
Efficient Markets Hypothesis | If you had paid enough for the page, it would have appeared. |
Moral Hazard | Showing you this page would only encourage you to want more pages. |
Tragedy of the Commons | Everyone wanted to view this page, but no-one was willing to maintain it. |
Game theory | By not viewing this page you help everyone else get better pages. |
Mercantilism | The page is hosted by a foreign web server and is therefore banned to ensure the supremacy of our own software. |
Trickle-down | High taxes on content publishers prevented them hiring the person who would have written this page. |
Speculative bubble | The page never actually existed and was fundamentally impossible, but everyone bought into it in a frenzy and it’s all now ending in tears. |
Socialism | If you were to get the page you wanted you might get a better page than someone else, which would be unfair. This way at least everyone gets the same. |
Behavioural economics | The influence of psychological factors caused you to act in a manner that would not be expected of a purely rational actor. |
Theory of the second best | The best outcome was unachievable, so you have arrived here instead. |