There are multiple problems with this virtuous cycle today. First, as we calculated at the outset of this section, it traps the vast majority of human attention. Second, when things contract, the effect of mutual reinforcement applies in the other direction. Take a small town, for example, in which local stores provide some of the employment. If a big superstore comes into town, total retail employment and wages will both fall. Fewer store employees have income, and those who do have less. If they start to spend less on haircuts and car repairs, the hair stylist and car mechanic earn less and can spend less themselves, and so on. Third, much of the consumption today is driven by vast sums of money spent on advertising, as well as by exposure to social media, inducing people into positional spending on wants (e.g., a bigger car than their neighbor). These higher expenditure levels, in turn, lock people into jobs which they hate but cannot afford to leave, which explains a great deal of the frustration among relatively highly-paid professionals, such as lawyers and bankers.