Barry Brooks > If consumers merely “use” wealth the consumer economy seems harmless, but > the consumer economy really works because it tries to use-up wealth.
I hope people will read Barry's analysis and not pass it by as tl/dr. A proper definition of "wealth" excludes the necessities that are used up simply to maintain the population. The definition of what are necessities will of course change as the development of productive forces allows for a more comfortable "subsistence." But *no* level of comfort for the middle class is adequate for the realization of surplus value because of the inherent contradictions in the production and realization of surplus value. Planned obsolescence (originally "progressive obsolescence") was a conscious strategy devised by advertising agents toward the end of the 1920s, when it became a worry that middle class consumers might be reaching a level of satisfaction with the comforts they enjoyed. The strategy involved transforming durable commodities into obsolescent ones through the promotion of new fashions and engineering "breakthroughs." A perfectly serviceable automobile would become a junker because it didn't have the "new powerglide" or the latest chrome trim. Us old timers can remember Vance Packard writing about this in the early 1960s -- and getting it widely talked about. Herbert Marcuse was very influenced by Packard and put a Frankfurt School Marxism spin on it, without connecting to Marx's discussion in the *Grundrisse* of closely related phenomena. Andre Gorz was also influenced by Packard. Cheers, Tom Walker (Sandwichman) -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#30721): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/30721 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/100605945/21656 Mute #degrowth:https://groups.io/g/marxmail/mutehashtag/degrowth Mute #planning:https://groups.io/g/marxmail/mutehashtag/planning Mute #disposabletime:https://groups.io/g/marxmail/mutehashtag/disposabletime -=-=- POSTING RULES & NOTES #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [[email protected]] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
