Simply use dating apps that want you to never finish using them.

Several layers of OK, since it's a made up story about a boyfriend pretending.

In that case it might be more constructive to say "There is no place that's good for just meeting people. You need to appear to want something else."

That sounds much less organic and believable.

9/11 blew up all our advertising talent

One of the few ways in which I pity billionaires.

"People are getting killed by AIDS! We need to do something about this!"

"Actually most of them just have HIV, which on its own kills nobody."

As you get older, you get better at recognizing when someone is just arguing to jerk themselves off. And if you're really trying to change things, then your time is best spent on people who will listen.

everyone below the owner is incentivised to help the owner increase productivity since the owner ultimately decides if they are fired or get raises and bonuses

I'm addressing this claim here. If increased productivity doesn't increase compensation, then there's no incentive to help the owner increase productivity. This year in particular we saw a lot of layoffs by profitable businesses! The productivity increases we have seen can be more easily attributed to technological advancement than increasingly motivated employees.

Imagine how much more productive we'd be if everyone actually had any reason to give a shit about their company. Because most of us certainly do not.

Lemon laws when

You're describing the doorman fallacy and it's part of why cooperatives outlast traditional businesses. That elevator operator understood the whole company and was willing to gradually shift to new responsibilities.

In the past generation we've seen productivity skyrocket while compensation hasn't.

So there's little to no incentive to increase productivity. You'll get paid more by switching jobs every few years than you will by putting in hard work for the company. We're "alienated" from the results of our labor - someone else gets the gains while our slice keeps getting thinner. The whole point of socialism is to address that.

Wouldn't workers owning the factors of production reduce negative externalities by introducing democratic voting into the decision-making process? When there's no voting, and simply one guy owning the business, then he's got every incentive to push his costs onto everyone else. If he's bribed to act against our interests, then there's no mechanism to remove him from power.

Have there been any successful examples of markets solving externalities on their own? Like coasian solutions in the wild? The best examples I can think of are banning leaded gasoline and CFCs. And the worst examples of things that aren't happening (like climate targets) are because the people actually in charge don't care if billions of poors die.