I needed some shampoo. The supermarket shampoo section was vast. I searched for a product containing the word SHAMPOO in large letters, took it to the checkout, paid, went home. Had a shower.
I examine the bottle. It's called Totally Coconuts. If there's nothing in it other than coconuts, it's in the very least misleading. There are laws about that, aren't there? The smaller print says it's for long, curly hair. My hair is so short even I don't know whether it's curly or straight.
Imagine the benefits of having just one 'brand' of shampoo. One (state owned) shampoo factory, no parasitical advertising agencies, no TV ads, lots of people released (sacked) from their jobs as shampoo consultants, brand ambassadors and factory workers in order to build houses, wind turbines and other socially useful products. Smaller supermarkets - because there would only be one toothpaste, one shower gel, one kind of biscuit and so on. Lots of wines, obviously, because they come from France, Spain and Australia and it's up to them what they do. Lots of land released for ... houses, wind turbines etc.
We could apply this concept to ... cars, for instance. Car brand differentiation is just so that you can be seen to have a better, uglier SUV than your neighbour. We'll all have the same cheap, energy efficient vehicles. The East Germans did that with the Trabant. Ever driven one of those?
I have a feeling this could be the way to get to net zero, so everyone'll love it. Let's go!
I told you - short and trivial.