Book review
Apr. 13th, 2010 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magentaCheap, the high cost of discount culture by Ellen Ruppel Shell, 2009. Excellent book on how our economy has been changed by the rise of discount selling, from the first mass sellers like Woolworths to Walmart and dollar stores. Part sociology, part economics, part history, the author describes why our obsession with getting a bargain is threatening our health, environment, standard of living and the economy in general. Very well written, but it's a complicated subject. Not an easy read, but very worthwhile.
Reading it, I came up with this a couple of ideas. Most political economists are very out of date; Adam Smith and Marx and many others wrote in such a different world that many of their ideas aren't applicable any more. (She talks about this in the book.) However, in the fashion of Marx, it is no longer enough to seize the means of production. We need to seize the means of distribution, because that is where the enormous, exploitative profits are coming from now. Originally, the capitalist took raw materials and labor and produced a product to sell. Now the layers of transport, advertising, warehousing, and selling make up much of the cost of the product, and profit may have no relation to the original costs.
Available from Hennepin County Library. There is a waiting list.
Reading it, I came up with this a couple of ideas. Most political economists are very out of date; Adam Smith and Marx and many others wrote in such a different world that many of their ideas aren't applicable any more. (She talks about this in the book.) However, in the fashion of Marx, it is no longer enough to seize the means of production. We need to seize the means of distribution, because that is where the enormous, exploitative profits are coming from now. Originally, the capitalist took raw materials and labor and produced a product to sell. Now the layers of transport, advertising, warehousing, and selling make up much of the cost of the product, and profit may have no relation to the original costs.
Available from Hennepin County Library. There is a waiting list.
