Comments | nogrod: The invisible hand maimed by fashion?

nogrod

The invisible hand maimed by fashion?

Jul 19, 2007 22:09

We have been making a textbook on political philosophy this summer and that process has made me think and rethink a host of issues yet again. One thing I would like to share with you is the following.

Even the staunchest socialist will have to admit that most of the human history has economically worked under some kind of market-based ( Read more... )

Comments 12

lommy July 19 2007, 19:42:05 UTC

I guess you're right... It's quite annoying. And that last paragraph was just hilarious! :D

tgwbs July 20 2007, 11:08:33 UTC

:D I love you. This is very well written... I think it may need to go in my memories.

anonymous July 20 2007, 11:52:09 UTC

Thanks for sharing that. :)

I took my only Economics class three years ago, so I hardly remember most of it, including what my Econ teacher called those goods that one buys only because everybody's buying them. But competitors are bound to try keeping up with fashion, aren't they? At least the invisible hand works again to their gain. But yes, poor consumers.

melatariel July 20 2007, 11:52:59 UTC

Oh, that was me. Forgot I had logged out. :D

anonymous July 24 2007, 12:32:59 UTC

But if people didn't want the latest fashions and accessories, people wouldn't buy them. If people didn't want to buy all their food (and more) in one place, then there would be no vast hypermarkets. If people didn't like gossip and tittle-tattle, there would be no tabloids and gossip magazines. The public gets what the public wants.

The problem is that what the individual wants is not necessarily good for society as a whole. So, do you make available what people want or what you think that they ought to have? And who makes that decision?

~Sauce~

nogrod July 25 2007, 22:32:22 UTC

You come up with a classic here Sauce! Even if I think I recognise something like an irony in your examples ( ... )

nogrod July 25 2007, 22:36:09 UTC

"The problem is that what the individual wants is not necessarily good for society as a whole. So, do you make available what people want or what you think that they ought to have? And who makes that decision ( ... )

nogrod July 25 2007, 22:36:35 UTC

Individual’s wishes vs. the society’s good as a whole? A common dualism and an important one. But I would just wish to add one more thing. We oftentimes associate the individual in this dualism to ourselves and think of the individual as the good one (looking at ourselves as individuals) and then we refer the society or groups or “masses” to something faceless and abstract - and bad or at least antagonistic to the welfare of the individual. Just look at any Hollywood action movie or American TV-police series to confirm this emotional tie you’ll bring in with it (“24”, “V” - sic!). But from the other point of view the bare-bones of society or a group is only a host of just as important individuals, everyone of them the center of the world to themselves just like the one we have put under our microscope to look at one time and to live with in fiction - or whom we think we are ourselves. Think of the basic usable “villain” in an action film whose duty is just to die when the hero jumps from behind one corner to the other one and guns him ( ... )

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