Louis, thanks for the pointer.
On the issue of blue jeans, I wasn't discussing designer jeans. (This is
a relatively recent escalation of consumer madness.) I was discussing
serviceable consumer goods.
Just as you note periodically that the advent of technical change makes
all kinds of things possible (and points in the direction of the
possibility fo reducing alienated labour), I don't think you can attribute
the Cuban (and before them Soviet, etc.) desire for decent clothes, etc.
to their having succumbed to Wizard of Oz marketing. There are countless
accounts of the shitty quality of consumer goods under AES. I was
merely asking for some analytical insight into why this was one of the
system's characteristics.
Sid Shniad
> > Sid Schniad:
> >
> >I asked if there was some theoretical link between social planning and
> >ownership (which brings the public health care and controlled rents) on
> >the one hand and the inability to produce blue jeans (the quintessential
> >symbol of the consumer good under capitalism) on the other.
> >
> >No one chose to respond to that question.
>
> I used to recommend William Leach's "Land of Desire" to PEN-L all the time
> and it seems appropriate to do it once again. This is a history of the
> origins of department stores, public relations and advertising in the US.
> Leach makes the simple point that prior to department stores, most people
> went to general stores and purchased cloth to make their own clothing.
> There was no such thing as advertising. The inspiration for department
> stores came from a variety of sources, including Madame Blavatsky's
> mysticism. John Marshall of Chicago, who set up the first department store,
> was an acolyte as was his chief interior designer, Frank L. Baum, author of
> Wizard of Oz. Leach makes the point that the city of Oz itself was a
> literary representation of Blavatsky's theosophy. Of course, what
> underpinned the department store from a material standpoint was enhanced
> means of production in textiles especially. What must be understood,
> however, was that there was very little interest in department stores and
> the twin phenomenon of consumerism at first. It took years and years of a
> steady drum-beat of advertising and public relations to create the demand
> that is still with us. The desire for designer jeans is not in our genes.
>
> Louis Proyect
>
>
