What an odd thing margarine is. It’s kind of amazing it...

What an odd thing margarine is. It’s kind of amazing it even got invented.

“What the world needs is a butter-like substance that replaces butter, but doesn’t taste as good as butter and is also really, really bad for your health. Hit it!”

*scientists scurry off to labs*

It’s self-fulfilling capitalism at its best (or worse). We are told by people who think capitalism is the shit that it goes like thus: there is a market for a product or service–a need or want–and a number of people come along and compete trying to satisfy that market. Whoever does so most efficiently and at the best price wins. Yay!

Which is bullshit.

Actually, you create a product or service and then, through advertising or enlisting scientists to come up with supporting studies (outright propaganda), you also create the market for it: an imagined need or want–and then a fool and his money are soon parted in your favor. The corporate drug cartels have this down to an art.

That’s the origin of the odd goo we call margarine. It’s existence, while certainly real, is still entirely imaginary.