Niche Airline Collapse Spells Glum Mass Future

WHO'S LAUGHING NOW? Silverjet Silverjet, the tiny all-business class airline that called itself "carbon-neutral" and only flew between Newark, London and Dubai, finally laid off all its entire workforce today—even though the company had just announced a completed buyout. So it's a sad day for proponents of the niche business! The future was supposed to bring us carefully tailored products that we could each consume at that perfect moment. (As in—you know how we used to call all sneakers "tennis shoes"? Now we really do have shoes for tennis.) At least two theoretical Marxist econometricians are crying this morning. Who were, come to think of it, probably Silverjet's only two customers. Back to Virgin Atlantic with you!