{"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":70,"pdf_page":78,"physical_index":78,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"c3e4c0dee52d37f32f7bb8fd3c56f5d58c98011cfee2539a0dc05b2aed4a1f60"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"Another explanation for the rise of credit is that it allowed rates of spending to be maintained as wages fluctuate. Credit can be used to keep spending in line with current standards, despite decreases in income. But credit can also be used in lieu of rising wages to support increasing consumption. The latter use is likely when expectations become fixed not just about current standards of consumption but also about the rate of increase of consumption. For example, the explosion of consumer credit after 1980 was partly in response to a demand for spending to continue to increase even as real wage levels stagnated—people tried to maintain the postwar pattern of continuously increasing consumption even when their purchasing power was frozen. The increasing use of credit since 1980 thus to some degree indicates a general demand for consumption to increase over time, regardless of what’s happening to real wages. This suggests that the widespread expectation, established in the early postwar era, that material living standards should continuously improve, had become firmly entrenched.\n\nBut if the increasing use of credit is explained by fixed expectations about ever-increasing consumption, the question arises of why those expectations should have become so inflexible. Why should consumers, faced with stagnating real income, have chosen to use credit to maintain increasing spending levels rather than keeping their spending in line with their incomes? Why did people expose themselves to the risks associated with accumulating unnecessary debt (some debt is of course unavoidable, especially for people living paycheck to paycheck)? The answer is clearly complex, but one possible explanation that fits with the theory developed in this book is that spending is seen as just compensation received in exchange for work. If the rate of increase of real wages falls, but the perceived labor input of waged workers does not, then wage earners might well feel entitled to keep constant the rate at which their consumption increases, even if that means resorting to credit.\n\n70\n\nTime for Things","previous_page":69,"next_page":71}