That's interesting. One of my friends has a theory of a "social discard program"...

That's interesting. One of my friends has a theory of a "social discard program" that she's been blogging a lot about recently. It's basically just noodling along the same lines:

http://freeideasblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/proposed-demotedis...

http://freeideasblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/demotepromote-or-d...

http://freeideasblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/good-nutrition-to-...

http://freeideasblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/new-theory-about-w...

http://freeideasblog.blogspot.com/2010/10/dont-trigger-disca...

Sorry for posting so many links, but taken as a whole it's a very provocative train of thought.