ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. Cheaponomics is not about saving anything other than the present economic environment and the income inequalities it generates and is predicated upon. Cheap has become a substitute for equality of income. Cheaponomics creates a false sense of hope, which makes large income inequalities tolerable. As long as we think products will become continually cheaper the American dream remains within reach, even if our paystubs and the environment say otherwise. Cheaponomics assumes the worst of people. We should let a free, unencumbered market decide the fate of the world because anything else would be tainted with the petty, selfish jealousy that clouds otherwise rational human judgment. That is why proponents of the economic status quo cringe when their form of socialism is challenged, because the other form, in their minds, "rewards laziness" and "disincentivizes work".
