{"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":72,"pdf_page":80,"physical_index":80,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"33bcc7cef3b1f09dddbe570d75170255f9f182cd96871abe6d1d7cf6376e4f0b"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"Olney argues that the growing expenditure on consumer durables cannot be explained by increasing incomes in conjunction with decreases in the prices of those goods. Comparing prices in the 1920s to those of the pre– World War I era, she finds that consumer durables were actually relatively more expensive in the later period than other goods and services. So the evidence suggests that there was a real shift in demand for consumer durables in the post–World War I period. What sense are we then to make of this change in consumer behavior? Olney suggests, like Avner Ofer, that we should think of the accumulation of consumer durables as a form of saving. On this interpretation, acquiring a consumer durable is an act of investment in an asset, akin to investments in fixed capital undertaken by firms. Consumers bank the utility-generating potential aforded by their artifacts for future use. Olney thus follows Becker (1981) in conceiving of households as utility-producing factories, with consumer goods as their working capital. Yet this analogy only highlights the oddness of the underlying pattern. It would be perverse for a firm to buy a piece of capital equipment and then leave it unused (or underutilized) while its value is inexorably eroded by depreciation. Also, in general it makes sense for firms and households alike to keep a good amount of capital in its fungible money form, as cash reserves, since future needs and wants cannot be easily predicted.45 Moreover, holding capital in the form of assets incurs a penalty if, as a result of an unforeseen calamity, a firm or a household is forced to sell those assets at distress sale prices. Under specific market conditions—for example, when people expect a shortage of some good, or under conditions of very high inflation—it might be a good idea to stockpile capital goods and materials. However, although there have been intermittent periods of high inflation in the United States— for example, in the period immediately following World War II and in the 1970s—on the whole the rate at which prices have increased over the century has been fairly gradual. Nor is it the case that hoarding consumer durables can be explained by fears of future scarcity. There were shortages during the wars, which led to price controls, and distributional problems during the Depression, but apart from those periods, America has been for a majority of its citizens, and for much of the twentieth century, a “land of plenty,” with low inflation and an abundance of goods. Given these historical conditions, the explanation given by Olney for the accumulation of consumer durables seems questionable.\n\n72\n\nTime for Things","previous_page":71,"next_page":73}