Elf Sternberg

I don't know what planet you're from, but mine is inhabited by Homo sapiens, the species that got to the top of the food chain by being the most subtly deceitful creatures the planet has ever seen. So I have to disagree, from your initial premise to the last, about the idea that "90% of all businesses very much want customers to understand and appreciate what goes into their products."

"Appreciate" what they ask you to appreciate, I agree with. That is marketing. "Understand?" I doubt it. The entire point behind a business is to sell something, and to do so requires an asymmetrical relationship between the buyer and the seller: both must perceive they are getting a benefit out of the their mutual act of consensual commercial intercourse.

In the thirty years I've been working, I've worked for seven companies: there large, four small. Once was in a marketing department, once as an engineer for an advertising firm, the others were all software related. My experience has been that every one of those companies was interested in selling their products, and to do so they told a narrative about the quality and efficacy of their products that had, at times, a passing relationship with the truth. In no case were those companies actually interested it educating the consumer about what really went into their products, or how easy it was to produce them, or how huge the markup frequently was.

I don't think this is exceptionally immoral or deceitful, any more than breath mints or makeup are immoral or deceitful during a date. We go into such things with our eyes open. But the phrase "caveat emptor" lives on for a very good reason. Businesses have no reason to tell the truth, other than to avoid the embarrassment of being caught outright lying (and in our oh-so-postmodern world, being ashamed of lying is itself becoming old-fashioned), and in my experience, deception is as commonplace as paperwork.