The problem with vice-type industries like gambling, cigarettes, and junk food is that one can make a reasonable argument that the users are deriving some kind of utility from gambling, smoking, and stuffing their faces with Cheetos. How do you measure utility? If it’s strictly in terms of WTP (willingness-to-pay), then vice doesn’t seem to be such a good candidate, you need to look at industries where there is an element of force or fraud, but not so extreme that the industry is banned.
Also one needs to distinguish between utility at an individual level and utility at a societal level. In arms race type situations, things which have a lot of utility at an individual level have very little utility when you look at things from the perspective of the entire universe of consumers.
That said, my vote is for higher education. At an individual level, lots of bright people go deep into debt and waste the best years of their lives because they are led to believe they will get good jobs which never materialize. At a societal level, a large portion of higher education is basically arms-racing, also known as credential inflation.
One could object that most higher education is performed by non-profitmaking institutions, but I think that is a legalistic limit on the definition of “profit” which is not true to the spirit of the question. Universities and professional schools generally do very well and pay their senior management very handsomely.
The problem with vice-type industries like gambling, cigarettes, and junk food is that one can make a reasonable argument that the users are deriving some kind of utility from gambling, smoking, and stuffing their faces with Cheetos. How do you measure utility? If it’s strictly in terms of WTP (willingness-to-pay), then vice doesn’t seem to be such a good candidate, you need to look at industries where there is an element of force or fraud, but not so extreme that the industry is banned.
Also one needs to distinguish between utility at an individual level and utility at a societal level. In arms race type situations, things which have a lot of utility at an individual level have very little utility when you look at things from the perspective of the entire universe of consumers.
That said, my vote is for higher education. At an individual level, lots of bright people go deep into debt and waste the best years of their lives because they are led to believe they will get good jobs which never materialize. At a societal level, a large portion of higher education is basically arms-racing, also known as credential inflation.
One could object that most higher education is performed by non-profitmaking institutions, but I think that is a legalistic limit on the definition of “profit” which is not true to the spirit of the question. Universities and professional schools generally do very well and pay their senior management very handsomely.