Consumerism [was RE: [Leica] Digital Leica M]

[bdcolen at comcast.net (B. D. Colen)]

Oooooops....a response from someone who actually know something. ;-)


 ..... Original Message .......
On Thu, 15 Jun 2006 05:25:34 -0400 "Chandos Michael Brown" <chandos@cox.net> 
wrote:
>I'm curious, Marc, where in Veblen you find a critique of "planned
>obsolescence?"  He had a keen eye for the vicarious and the conspicuous (and
>I often talk about the culture of Leica when I teach Veblen), but I just
>don't recall, after many years of assigning him in the classroom, that he
>has much to say about this subject.  Alfred Sloane came along just as Veblen
>was shuffling off this mortal coil, and the phrase itself, "planned
>obsolescence" is a neologism of the twenties and thirties, and grew out, so
>far as I understand, of the automotive industry, about which Veblen had
>little to say.
>
>I'm reasonably well read in the literature of consumer culture in 19th
>century America, and this is the first I've heard that this practice
>consciously articulated itself during that century.
>
>Cheers!
>
>Chandos 
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: lug-bounces+chandos=cox.net@leica-users.org
>[mailto:lug-bounces+chandos=cox.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Marc James
>Small
>Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2006 8:05 PM
>To: Leica Users Group
>Subject: Re: Consumerism [was RE: [Leica] Digital Leica M]
>
>Mass production and consumerism -- "planned obsolescence" and the like --
>date from the 1800's.  Social critics such as Thorstein Veblein noted this
>at the turn of the last century.  In truth, there is nothing new under the
>sun.  What has changed is that the dynamic has gone from marketing machines
>with repairable components to marketing machines with replaceable
>components.  The US military went through this in the 1970's and 1980's
>when mechanics were, of a sudden, told to quit pulling components and
>fixing them and to pull components and replace them with new components;
>the ones pulled were then sent for rebuld but, today, are simply sent for
>salvage -- the exterior frame is still good, and the materials inside are
>worthy of scavenging, but the basic component is not worth rebuilding.
>
>Microchip technology has howled down the price of basic componenets.  The
>most modern auto I have yet owned is a 1984 Audi 4000S and I am continually
>reminded of the sophistication afforded us by electronic controls.  (But,
>damn, I STILL miss my '57 round-window Beetle on which I could fix
>anything!)  My wife wants us to get all new appliances once we get moved to
>Richmond and we shall do so.  We shall pay less than we did the last time
>around and get appliances whose use-by date is determined solely by the
>life of a microchip.  But the new item will still be more effective, more
>efficeint, and offer more features than the older ones.  Hell, my wife and
>I moved up from 1999 Nokia cell phones last weekend.  I am so bored by
>technology that I will still not know all of the features of this telephone
>when I trade it in for a new one in two or three years.  Hell, I cna't
>figure out Photoshop 5, so who am I to talk?
>
>I drive a five-speed as does my wife, but hers is a 2004 Hyundai Elantra.
>It is intriguing to find out that my Audi, which was a lower-end luxury car
>when marketed, has all of the features of Pam's Elantra, a lower-end car
>for which she paid cash when she bought it.  Yes, I do get slightly better
>gas mileage, but then, the Audi takes High-Test, so it all evens out in the
>end.
>
>Do not regard the changes in US marketing over the past twenty or thirty
>years as remarkable as these changes have been going on sicne the
>development of our commercial system in the late 1800's, and critics have
>abounded ever since.
>
>Marc
>
>msmall@aya.yale.edu 
>Cha robh b?s fir gun ghr?s fir!
>
>
>
>
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>
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