{"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":99,"pdf_page":107,"physical_index":107,"physical_index_base":0,"printed_page_status":"recognized","page_sha256":"9e87bf0b4f48d6cb6eb5ee8d3f6fbfad0f4acf25d86b9b02dcc3d0091cd82445"},"chapter":"FOR","content":"1.4. Explains Why the Market for Rented Goods Is Relatively Small\n\nThe commensuration theory also works well to explain why renting commodities, as opposed to buying them, is much less common than might be expected. There are good reasons to think that, under conditions in which output and real wages are increasing, but free time is not, it makes sense for consumers to rent products rather than buy them. Renting durables enables a more eficient use of resources, while also allowing consumers to change their product sets without incurring the transaction costs and loss of value through depreciation involved in selling old ones. Indeed, in recent years, a body of thought has emerged that imagines a more rational and environmentally responsible version of capitalism, partly on the basis of moving away from ownership and toward renting. This argument features prominently, for example, in Natural Capitalism, an influential book that sets out a manifesto for a progressive and sustainable form of capitalism (Hawken, Josin, and Josin 1999). A society-wide shift from owning objects to renting them would greatly reduce the direct cost of satisfying a given amount of demand, because output of useful products could be more closely linked to actual patterns of use. “Just-in-time” production could be precisely adjusted to meet the demand for “just-in-time” consumption, significantly reducing waste and ineficiency. Universal renting of durables would also reduce the negative externalities produced by meeting that demand. If, for example, cars were rented rather than individually owned, then far fewer cars would be required to satisfy the social demand for transportation. This decline in demand would then lead to fewer cars being produced, and that would result in less pollution.21 In addition, mass renting of durables would help with the logistics of waste management, as rental companies are better able to eficiently recycle or dispose of obsolescent goods than are consumers.\n\nApart from the benefits of eficient satisfaction of social demand and waste reduction for society, renting products also ofers clear advantages to individual consumers. By anchoring cost to actual use, renting circumvents the additional costs incurred by ownership. In renting an asset, consumers pay for the service they need from a given object and no more. This facilitates a lean and eficient style of consumption, in which what gets purchased is an actual duration of use, rather than a store of potential utility, some portion of which will probably never get realized. Renting goods also saves consumers time and money in repairs and maintenance; saves space, since it prevents the accumulation of unnecessary clutter; and reduces the amount of money the consumer has sunk in assets, thereby increasing their financial flexibility. Consumers who rent products, as opposed to purchasing them, also have the flexibility to satisfy a greater variety of tastes and quickly adjust to changes in their needs or desires. Moreover, since, under capitalism, the rate of obsolescence has steadily increased over time, renting products provides an easier and more afordable way to continually upgrade to the latest product model. Being able to easily change products, by renting new ones, ofers particular advantages for the consumer of status goods and those used to construct identity. This is because renting status goods allows for a flexible approach to consumption, enabling consumers to rapidly change product sets in response to changes in fashion, and facilitating chameleon-like product code-switching between diferent sociocultural contexts. For example, the renting consumer could bring a Bentley to the Ritz for tea, a Hummer to a rap concert, a VW bus to a weekend Woodstock nostalgia event, and so on.22 In addition, whether a product being used by a consumer to display status is actually owned or just rented is not a public fact. By strategically renting high-status items for public events, the benefits of displaying them can be obtained without having to purchase them.\n\nA Theory of Mass Consumption as Wage-Labor Commensuration\n\n99","previous_page":98,"next_page":100}