{"resolved":true,"match_type":"uuid","source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","requested_by":"printed_page","book":{"source_type":"original_book","book_id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","id":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","uuid":"10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title":"Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption","normalized_title":"timeforthingslaborleisureandtheriseofmassconsumption","author":null,"edition":null,"publisher":null,"year":null,"isbn":"9780674250529","isbns":["9780674250529","9780674250536","9780674979512"],"parsed":true,"ai_readable":true,"document_type":"book","page_count":355,"navigation_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","title_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/title/Time%20for%20Things%20Labor%2C%20Leisure%2C%20and%20the%20Rise%20of%20Mass%20Consumption","fixed_page_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","path_api_url_template":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/book/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page/{printed_page}","read_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/read/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3","page_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/page","search_url":"https://workshop.closeclaw.top/api/ai/books/10f0f318-a2eb-4ea9-8798-d4fb0304f8c3/search"},"page":{"printed_page":11,"pdf_page":19,"physical_index":19,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"041a243efaa05d8ee09008f886d5e554963566d3ee4adbfd7af0c19d187cde01"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"The second part of the book shows how various trends in US history align with the theory. I focus on two large-scale developments. The first of these, discussed in Chapter 5, is the increasing legitimacy accorded to the institution of wage labor. Wage labor began by being regarded as a deeply questionable institution, entailing coercion and loss of freedom to such an extent that it was associated with slavery but, over time, came to be seen as a potentially fair exchange relationship. This legitimization of wage labor involved the rise of an overriding concern with a conception of fair wages defined in terms of their purchasing power—the capacity of the wage to capture a set of goods, the value of which is deemed in some sense suficient for it to count as fair compensation for the work given in exchange for the wage. The notion of measurable purchasing power in turn depended on the second trend I examine—the increasing standardization of consumer goods (as well as work and wages). Standardization had the efect of stabilizing the properties of consumer commodities, which was a prerequisite for commensuration. At the same time, the moral economy built around the notion of fair and commensurate wage-labor exchange encouraged further standardization in the sphere of consumption. Diferent dimensions of the standardization of consumption are discussed in Chapters 6, 7, and 8. In Chapter 9, I consider the reaction to the perceived violation of the normative order underlying the standardization of consumption, by examining the moral panic around planned obsolescence. The rise of what historian Meg Jacobs (2005) has described as a “purchasing power paradigm” in American political economy, which focused on real wages above all else, in conjunction with the standardization of consumer goods, promoted the notion that work is commensurable with its wage. And it was this commensurability of wage and work, I argue, that explains the pattern of work and consumption that emerged in the twentieth century. The book concludes with a summation of the argument and some general thoughts about the character of economic normativity under capitalism.\n\nIntroduction\n\n11","previous_page":10,"next_page":12}