{"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":144,"pdf_page":152,"physical_index":152,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"975dc6a0ae21e77331d073060780d3001dac90f3f840317d5bd07fa11773784b"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"Chinoy (1955, p.  126) saw this attitude as indicating a tension between the constraints of class and the valorization of ambition and social mobility: “American culture encourages men to seek both occupational advancement and the acquisition of material possessions. But workers who respond to both of these admonitions use the second to rationalize their failure to achieve the first.” His interpretation is thus essentially psychological: “Workers .  .  . try to maintain the illusion of persisting ambition by extending the meaning of advancement to include the acquisition of personal possessions” (p. 130). According to Chinoy: “In order to convince themselves that they are getting ahead and that they are not without ambition, workers apply to the ends they pursue the vocabulary of the tradition of opportunity. They extend the meaning of ambition to include the search for security, the pursuit of small goals in the factory, and the constant accumulation of personal possessions” (p. 124). Despite expressing deep dissatisfaction with their jobs, Chinoy’s informants regarded them as basically acceptable to the degree that, in exchange for their alienated labor, they were able to accumulate consumer commodities.\n\nBut what might it mean to “get ahead” by way of the accumulation of commodities? One interpretation would be that “getting ahead” was about status competition by way of conspicuous consumption. On this understanding, the urge to “get ahead” is a more competitive version of the imperative to “keep up” with the Joneses. What workers sought, perhaps preemptively, to “get ahead” of were their friends, workmates, and neighbors. Yet a status-focused interpretation of the acquisition of commodities seems odd, because the setting of Chinoy’s study was a community in which occupational status was relatively fixed. While a few autoworkers harbored dreams of eventually going into business for themselves in some capacity, most felt that all they could hope for was social mobility for their children. In contexts in which everyone is stuck in more or less the same kind of job, the only thing conspicuous consumption is going to index is likelihood of being in debt.\n\n144\n\nTime for Things","previous_page":143,"next_page":145}