[Alberta's Child]

There’s still an underlying economic force at work. In mass production (as in almost any business endeavor), products must be sold “upward” — i.e., the whole process is conducted in an economic paradigm where those who make a product are selling it to customers who are wealthier than them.

When your society has the highest standard of living in the history of mankind, it’s much more difficult to find customers to buy at the price point needed to support the wages of the people making any given product. That’s why the biggest U.S. manufacturing operations these days involve products that are sold not to people, but to governments and major corporate customers. Boeing aircraft is a perfect example of this.

[T.B. Yoits]

In mass production (as in almost any business endeavor), products must be sold “upward” — i.e., the whole process is conducted in an economic paradigm where those who make a product are selling it to customers who are wealthier than them.

In mass production, products are often sold downward, where those who make a product are selling it to customers who are poorer than them, such as selling rubber bands, bubble gum, and pencils by the millions to schoolkids with little to no money.

Cigarettes, alcohol, and a thousands of other items follow the same model.