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May 6, 2008

How we became 'consumers'; Free mp3s: U2 '87; New groceries review site

The Gospel of Consumption: And the better future we left behind A readable, smart essay at Orion Magazine about how we came to have so much stuff, and so little time. Worth a read.

In a 1927 interview with the magazine Nation’s Business, Secretary of Labor James J. Davis provided some numbers to illustrate a problem that the New York Times called “need saturation.” Davis noted that “the textile mills of this country can produce all the cloth needed in six months’ operation each year” and that 14 percent of the American shoe factories could produce a year’s supply of footwear. The magazine went on to suggest, “It may be that the world’s needs ultimately will be produced by three days’ work a week.”

Business leaders were less than enthusiastic about the prospect of a society no longer centered on the production of goods. For them, the new “labor-saving” machinery presented not a vision of liberation but a threat to their position at the center of power. John E. Edgerton, president of the National Association of Manufacturers, typified their response when he declared: “I am for everything that will make work happier but against everything that will further subordinate its importance. The emphasis should be put on work—more work and better work.” “Nothing,” he claimed, “breeds radicalism more than unhappiness unless it is leisure.”

By the late 1920s, America’s business and political elite had found a way to defuse the dual threat of stagnating economic growth and a radicalized working class in what one industrial consultant called “the gospel of consumption”—the notion that people could be convinced that however much they have, it isn’t enough.

It also explores a wonderful experiment at Kellogg in 1930 -- a six-hour workday:

Not only did Kellogg prosper, but journalists from magazines such as Forbes and BusinessWeek reported that the great majority of company employees embraced the shorter workday. One reporter described “a lot of gardening and community beautification, athletics and hobbies . . . libraries well patronized and the mental background of these fortunate workers . . . becoming richer.”

Dress rehearsal?

U2: Mountains And Deserts: Live at McNichols Arena, Denver, Colorado, November 7, 1987. High quality stereo MP3s from the soundboard of the entire concert the day before the one that was recorded as the soundtrack for Rattle And Hum

Food profiling: Zeer, which launched yesterday, is a review site for food -- the prepackaged products you buy in the grocery store.

Now it needs members to write reviews that will make it more than an inventory list. pf groceries available in the early 21st century. The toolbox is ready: Members can rate and review, love, hate or want a product.

Nearly every product I thought to search for is preloaded -- Nature's Promise Cookies, lemon pie fillings, Felix Wild Swedish Berries Lingonberries, The Baker Whole Grain Flax Bread., Old London Cheddar Waffle Snacks.. (I did stump it, though -- with Kenyon's Clam Chowder and Cheez Waffies, at right, a Wise version of the Cheddar Waffle Snacks that Old London used to sell in tubes, like Pringles, as "Cheezwiches.")

According to TechCrunch (Food Review Site Zeer Launches), it "is targeted at women between 20 and 32."

From an editorial viewpoint, that's weird. Wouldn't people who've been buying and eating longer be able to contribute more reviews?

Also from TC,

"...each member’s profile page shows what products she loves and hates the most."

I'm all for review sites, but that last part does seem a little silly. And would you think less of me if I admit I love Cheez Waffies? (I haven't had one in years, but still love them.)

(The photo is from she treads softly, usually a books blog. But one day last November, Cheez Waffies.)

Posted by Sheila Lennon  at 2:23 AM | Permalink

Comments

Posted by: Shelley on May 6, 2008 8:35 AM

Posted by: Sheila on May 7, 2008 12:03 AM