dispatches from TJICistan

http://enthusiasm.cozy.org/archives/2007…

Markets are the friend of the plutocracy.

Uhhh….well, we’re off to an interesting start.

Lack of markets, though, that’s a friend to the working man!

#include <pictures of empty shelves in Cuban stores>
#include <lines in Soviet Russia for toilet paper>

etc.

“market choice” isn;t synonymous with democratic freedom.

And thank God for that!

As the joke (‘joke’) goes

Here’s choice under a government:

Here’s choice in a market:

Anyway, onward:

Progressive governments do assorted things to counter the pro-plutocracy tendency of markets, for example creating public goods that raise the foundation the entire economy stands upon, but that’s not what this post is about.

Tibor Scitovskyin his book “The Joyless Economy” points out that mass production can act as a countervailing force. Mass production, which can lower unit costs tremendously and that empowers the masses to draw out of the economy goods which raise their standard of living and fulfill their desires. The market aggregates their dollars and mass production leverages those dollars. These pseudo public goods are leveraged by both rich and poor.

This arguement is analogous

Actually, I don’t think it’s an argument – I think it’s a fact accepted by every economist, left right and center.

Anyway.

This arguement is analogous to the change the subject argument made whenever

Whhhaaaaaat ?

the distribution of wealth becomes the subject of attention; e.g. that rising standards of living have raised all boats. I don’t have much patience with those arguments, but that’s not what this post is about.

How is “not having much patience” different from being intellectually lazy?

Economies of scale create a well known perverse effect; they tend to make the largest producer in an industry the cost, quality, and profit leader.

Yes, the largest producer in an industry is the quality and profit leader.

That’s why everyone drives Jaguars (because they’re made by Ford and Mazda, and are very cheap to produce).

That’s why everyone uses Macintoshes (because they’re made by Dell, and are very cheap to produce).

That’s why Haagen Dazs outsells other brands of ice cream.

That’s why the Toll Brothers sell McMansions to the majority of US citizens, etc.

That’s is good for the plutocracy and bad for the health of the market.

Huh?

Scitovskyin uses an older term for the consumer, he calls them the mob.

That’s how you can tell a true leftist: they proclaim their love and respect for the working man, but then – when only other leftists are listening – they call them things like “lumpen proletariat” and “the mob”.

The mob is the complement of the plutocracy. The mob can only benefit from economies of scale if a coherent demand signal emerges in the market about their desires. In the absence of that signal the producers don’t know what to make. That creates a yearning for both producers and consumers to rendezvous, standardize, on achievable desires.

Well, yes.

If one steel worker wants a custom made banjo, and another wants a rug embroidered with a picture of Gary Gygax, and another one wants a motorcycle exactly 98% of the size of a normal Harley…then all of these items will have to be fabricated as one-offs, and there will be no economies of scale.

Happily, though, folks have infinite desires, and the market has a very very large number of things already up for sale, and folks manage to find more or less what they’re looking for. When the quantity of item X that people want is sufficiently large, economies of scale kick in, and the price drops, and there’s a positive feedback loop, to a limited extent.

It is perverse that mass production creates incentives for everybody to be more conventional.

“Perverse” ?

So now we hate the universe because it’s easier for me to bake three loaves of bannanna bread for my family and friends than it is for me to bake one loaf of banana bread for mom, one loaf of apple bread for Nick and Suz, and a batch of cranberry muffins for Pete and Elisabeth?

Oh, wait.

I’m sorry.

This phenomena is an effect of the markets.

Right.

So, actually, it is JUST AS EASY for me to make three separate things for my friends, but when the evillllll market gets involved, then “perverse incentives” creep in.

Advertisers pour money into the market is their yearning to accelerated the forming of this or that consensus. It’s parsimonious to argue that when they succeed it’s their desires, rather than the mob who’s desires really being fulfilled. One is tempted at this point to call them the herd. In any case, economies of scale act encourage normative of behavior in the mob.

Oh nosss!

It’s cheaper for me to buy an Xterra, which isn’t exactly the perfect vehicle for me, but is pretty damned sweet, then it is for me to commission a custom vehicle with extra wide drivers seat, walnut burl dashboard, and a mod to the stereo system that yells out “salesmen!” every time it detects a Rush song on the radio.

Markets make it expensive to be eccentric.

Because, you see, if there weren’t markets, then I’d be able to get that custom vehicle with extra wide drivers seat, walnut burl dashboard, and a mod to the stereo system for a low low price.

Markets make it expensive to be eccentric.

Markets do that.

They make it expensive to be eccentric.

Damn, how I envy those Soviets and Cubans who got to ride around in their totally pimped out kustom rides!

There is a long tradition of plutocrats fearing the mob, see French revolution.

Wait a second.

Did the plutocrats insert the phrase “mob” into this conversation ?

I thought the only ones here referring to the “mob” here was Scitovskyin and Ben?

Let’s scroll up.

Scitovskyin uses an older term for the consumer, he calls them the mob.

It probably says something about American education that I’d not previously noticed that the market works to normalize the mob’s behaviors.

Hmmm…

It is amusing to note that the rich, while probably not born more or less abnormal than the rest of us, are less likely to have their rough edges worn off.

Yes, I’m always shocked when I spend the morning in the ghetto, and then go to the country club, how much ruder those folks are.

The economies of scale also work to extinguish some goods and services.

Yes, it’s true. In late stage capitalism like ours, there’s just no place to get custom work done. Like, if you want

custom motorcycles or custom wooden bowls or custom comic books or custom made wheelchairs, you just can’t find those things.

Mass production is not a universal solution. It is not effective across all goods and services. It works well for something thing, e.g. lawn furniture, but much less well for others, e.g. live music.

Yeah, if I wanted to, say, book a harpist to play for me, how would I even begin to find one?

Or say I wanted to find someone with a singing saw who did gigs, or maybe a theramin player, how could I possibly find someone who – in the context of the market – would come to my house and play music for me for “money” ?

And even if I could find a performer, it’s not as if I could commission a song.

Yeah, when it comes to having creative acts done in the market economy, you just can’t get a professional artist to make something just for you.

The market really does piss on everything.

So a second perversity of markets is that they work to extinguish goods and services that are resistant to scaling and this happens even if there is substantial demand for them.

Agreed.

That’s why you can’t find a theremin player, or anyone who will custom design comic book characters for you, or a humor writer to review a video on airbrushing bowling pins – unless thousands of people want these things, then they’re impossible to purchase in the market.

Thought provokingly, by the force of habit the market will label those activities as eccentric; and when members of the mob signal their demand for them they the market’s return signal will be “mind your manners.”

Oh nozzz! Because I commissioned a comic book illustrator to draw custom pictures based on photos of me and my staff, someone’s going to label me “eccentric” !

And because I painted my living room orange, someone is going to tell me to “mind my manners”.

And when I go off and buy those sheets of copper plate that I found online, and use them to replace the tile walls in my bathroom, someone is going to laugh at me.

Oh, cruel, cruel market.

I hatessssss you.

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 20th, 2007 at 11:29 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.