Half a croissant, on a plate, with a sign in front of it saying '50c'
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This would work fine, except in terms of success.

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Wants app

an app where people specify what they want
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We need a machine readable way to signal demand in the market. There should be a marketplace of wants.

On the app you can say any thing what you want, according to maslow's hierarchy of needs, you can say I want a chinese tonight all the way through I want a doctor in my area of living. You can make a bid to say how much you'd pay for it too.

People can bid on wants and offer to fulfil wants. Businesses get free market data of wants.

chronological, Jan 02 2020

Ship of Theseus https://en.wikipedi...iki/Ship_of_Theseus
[the porpoise, Jan 03 2020]

[link]






       Although there are reverse bidding systems out there, they're not in use by the common man. Heavy usage of such an app would greatly improve the ability of a capitalist society to match supply to demand. [+]
Voice, Jan 02 2020
  

       // people can bid on wants and offer to fulfil wants //
Baked. Congratulations, you just reinvented the economy.
  

       // maslow's hierarchy //
needs improvement. the top tier of the hierarchy (pursuing self-actualization) is the "abyss" that Nietzsche described, while the bottom tier of the hierarchy (survival tier) is where the real memorable fun happens.
sninctown, Jan 02 2020
  

       //needs improvement//   

       That's putting it mildly. Maslow's "Motivation and Personality" (the book in which the hierarchy was originally proposed) was basically the manual by which I was brought up, and I cannot stress strongly enough how misconceived is the book, the hierarchy and the whole "positive psychology" movement to which it contributed.   

       Maslow's whole wretched ziggurat was, and remains, a pyramid scam. It is anti-scientific, anti-democratic, economically exploitative and would be improved only by some well placed drill holes and generous quantities of ANFO.   

       ... or maybe I've just been around [8th] too long.
pertinax, Jan 02 2020
  

       <Reads [pert]'s anno/>   

       <Ticks item on list/>   

       // the "abyss" that Nietzsche described //   

       Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, [sninc] ...
8th of 7, Jan 02 2020
  

       I'm sure eBay used to do this - i.e. allow you to post things you wanted as well as things you were offering for sale. [later edit, after some searching - yes, this was the "Want it now" section, which was on eBay in the late '90's]
hippo, Jan 02 2020
  

       Kijiji, which is owned by eBay, lets you post want ads. I doubt anybody reads them, though.
notexactly, Jan 02 2020
  

       Many online stores let you have a wishlist. I expect wishlist data is mined like all the other data. "Hey Joe, wishlisting of wotsits has spiked, order another crate would ya?" That would seem to cover demand signalling for known goods.   

       Halfbakery covers demand signalling for the unknown.
the porpoise, Jan 02 2020
  

       There are many, many items of demand that never make it to a store's wish list. And I use Amazon's wish list as a buffer for things I'm not sure I want. I would pay a premium for a 24 hour Chinese food delivery in my area, or for a pizza delivery that doesn't demand my personal information as a cost of doing business. Aside from local businesses there are many items I want that aren't quite matched by the market, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who wants such things. At the least the app could offer perfectly-matched items that I didn't know existed or wasn't able to find.
Voice, Jan 02 2020
  

       // there are many items I want that aren't quite matched by the market, and I'm sure I'm not the only person who wants such things. //   

       It's all a matter of money, and to a certain extent geography.   

       If you have enough money (and locate yourself in a region where law is completely soluble in ready cash) then anything you want that exists - plutonium by the kilo, narcotics and stimulants, cloned narwhals, surface-to-orbit launch capability, live humans or baby pandas - can be obtained.   

       If you want a single unique item, like van Gogh's "The Sunflowers", or Enola Gay, or the Sydney Harbour Bridge, then that is admittedly more difficult, if the owner doesn't want to sell &&/|| it's not very portable.
8th of 7, Jan 02 2020
  

       //if the owner doesn't want to sell// then you are not offering them enough money.
pocmloc, Jan 02 2020
  

       Either that, or you need to hire someone to make their heirs and successors an offer they daren't refuse.
8th of 7, Jan 02 2020
  

       That's only true after a certain amount of time and advertising. Of course I could put an ad on Craig's List offering $300 cash for anyone who bring me such and such a pizza, but it will still take the time for the right person to read it and respond. If I want a guaranteed spit-free pizza I might have to pay even more for them to video- tape the whole trip. Any more complicated and we're in the realm of contractual obligations and it would cost less just to hire my own chef. But if I'm willing to pay $40 for a $20 pizza so long as I can pay in cash with no ID or app, the normal way of doing things has no way to inform the market of this desire.
Voice, Jan 03 2020
  

       // I would pay a premium […] for a pizza delivery that doesn't demand my personal information as a cost of doing business. //   

       How are they going to deliver pizza to you without knowing where you live?   

       // if the owner doesn't want to sell &&/|| it's not very portable //   

       syntax error   

       // then you are not offering them enough money. //   

       But that is its own problem, sometimes, because you want to buy something (e.g. Star Wars or Firefly) to get it away from its current owner (e.g. Disney), but you don't want to give that owner the amount of money that would take because that would make them more powerful.
notexactly, Jan 03 2020
  

       Then the service you require is theft, not purchase.
pocmloc, Jan 03 2020
  

       Intellectual property cannot be stolen, only copied and/or destroyed. If I make a perfect copy of your car you're not out a car. If I make a perfect copy of your car and then burn your car I haven't stolen your car, I've destroyed it.
Voice, Jan 03 2020
  

       What if I don't have a car?
pocmloc, Jan 03 2020
  

       We will supply a Wicker Car- the contemporary equivalent of a Wicker Man- in which you will be placed (tied up if necessary*) for the excruciating but mercifully brief remainder of your life, [poc].   

       *Actually, the Intercalary ties up all the customers whether it's required or not - it seems to be just another manifestation of his unseemly and deviant obsession with ropes and knots.
8th of 7, Jan 03 2020
  

       // If I make a perfect copy of your car you're not out a car. If I make a perfect copy of your car and then burn your car I haven't stolen your car, I've destroyed it. //   

       Ah the old Car of Theseus problem [link].   

       A just court would award me your car as damages for you destroying my car. Would my new car be the same car as my old car?
the porpoise, Jan 03 2020
  
      
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