Time for Things Labor, Leisure, and the Rise of Mass Consumption

Chicago, 182, 233, 240, 243

Chinoy, Eli, 136–137, 140, 142–147

Civil War, 130, 132, 134

Cohen, G. A., 60

Cohen, Lizabeth, 38, 67, 70, 74, 92, 133, 207

Commerce Department, 71, 161–162, 164

Communitarians, 62

Congress, 130, 191, 202, 203

Conspicuous consumption, 13, 37–39, 144–145

Consumer durables revolution, 7, 33, 43, 52, 56, 69, 83, 92; and interwar spending patterns, 71–73

Consumer product testing, 150–151, 153, 167, 170, 180, 197–218

Consumer Reports, 198, 201, 205–213

Consumer Research Bulletin, 183

Consumers Advisory Board, 164

Consumers’ Research, 167, 183, 198, 199, 204, 209

Consumers Union, 167, 198, 204–210, 215, 232, 249

Cook, Rosalind, 199

Corporatism, 77, 131, 208, 229, 260

Costa, Dora, 6, 27, 54–56, 58, 60, 63, 148; and women’s labor force participation, 51

Cowan, Ruth, 52, 75

Credit cards, 69, 235

Customs, 80, 81, 124, 128, 129, 219, 266

Cutler, Jonathan, 132

Death dates, 223, 226, 228, 230, 235, 243, 251–256

Deaton, Angus, 15, 18, 19, 65, 98, 110

de Certeau, Michel, 39

DeLong, Bradford, 45

Department of Agriculture, 163, 169

Detroit, 175, 176, 233, 234, 255, 257

De Vries, Jan, 105

Disposable products, 119–122

Domestic appliances, 52, 74–75

Domestic labor, 52, 75, 77–78, 122

Dru-Stanley, Amy, 128–129

Earth Day, 250

Easterlin, Richard, 15, 17–18

Education, 110, 155, 216

Endowment efect, 105, 106, 107, 120

Environmentalism, 251, 253

Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 251

Erdman Act, 174

Esping-Andersen, Gosta, 76, 102–105

European Union, 77–78, 103

Eurostat, 77

Fair Labor Standards Act, 50, 59

Family wage, 171

Federal Department of Agriculture (FDA), 163, 169

Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 224

Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 162, 163, 194, 247, 249

Feudalism, 81

Fogel, Robert, 47

Foner, Eric, 57, 60, 128

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), 219

Ford, Henry, 167, 171

Fordism, 47, 84–85, 89, 131, 157, 158; and the working class norm of consumption, 23–26; and moral economy, 91, 252, 258–260

Ford’s five dollar day, 171, 229

France, 76, 77

Frankfurt School, 5, 85, 156

Frederick, Christine, 227, 228

Free labor, 115, 128

Friedman, Milton, 65

Frigidaire, 238, 240

Galbraith, J. K., 220, 226, 239

Gallup, 18, 19, 20

Garon, Sheldon, 72, 103

Gender, 118–119, 175, 207–208

General Electric, 199, 223

Germany, 77, 125

Gherardi, Bernard, 159

Gillette, 239

342

Index

Glickman, Lawrence, 57, 92, 118, 129, 133–134, 195, 198

Inflation, 72, 112, 186, 259, 261

Glyn, Andrew, 229, 255

Information and communications technology, 224, 227

Godbey, Geofrey, 52–53

Installment buying, 68–70

Golden Age (of capitalism), 8, 24, 46, 84, 89, 218; and profit rates, 59; and the purchasing power paradigm, 158; the decline of, 226, 229, 258, 260–261

Isaacs, Nathan, 192

Jacobs, Meg, 12, 38, 143, 158, 207, 252

Goldin, Claudia, 46, 51, 66

Kahneman, Daniel, 15, 18–19, 105–108, 120

Gompers, Samuel, 131, 134, 171

Kallet, Arthur, 154, 204

Gordon, David, 24

Karpik, Lucien, 178

Gordon, John F., 238

Great Depression, 67, 69, 72, 87, 238, 271; and Keynes, 1, 25; and consumer spending, 67, 139–140, 184–185; and the consumer movement, 195, 208; and planned obsolescence, 227–228

Kellogg, W. W., 59, 62

Kennedy, John F., 195

Kettering, Charles, 167

Gregory, Paul. M., 230–231

Keynes, John Maynard, 1–6, 20, 78, 258, 269, 271; on the propensity to consume, 13, 68, 88, 98; on animal spirits, 87; on collective practices, 114.

Griliches, Zvi, 45

Kimeldorf, Howard, 131, 133

Guest, Robert, 136, 137, 143

Knight, Frank, 6, 13

Guiltinan, Joseph, 231

Knights of Labor, 131

Gutman, Herbert, 50–51, 57

Knowledge economy, 5

Hamilton, Walter, 152, 191–192

Harvey Balls, 211–213

Hedonic treadmill, 37, 265

Labor process, 20, 51, 105; and alienation, 128, 138; intensification of, 23–24, 51, 174; and Taylorism, 170

Hoarding, 72, 120

Lancaster, Kelvin, 30, 31, 215

Hobsbawm, Eric, 50, 57, 81, 128, 129

Lansing, Michigan, 137, 145

Hochschild, Arlie, 60–62

Layard, Richard, 15

Home Economics Association, 168, 199, 200

Lears, Jackson, 187

Lehman, Herman F., 238, 240

Homeownership, 73–74, 100

Lewis, Anthony, 251

Hoover, Herbert, 154, 161, 162, 163, 184

Life cycle hypothesis, 65–66, 110

Hotchkiss, George Burton, 181

Life evaluation, 18

Hunnicut, Benjamin, 59, 60, 62, 132

Life expectancy, 63, 65, 66, 68

Hurleigh, Robert F., 241

Hyperbolic discounting, 34–36, 64–66, 105, 107–109

Locke, John, 195

London, Bernard, 227, 228, 232

Lord, Harry, 161

Los Angeles, 175, 233

Implied warranty, 151, 153, 168, 188, 195, 217–218; origins of, 192–193

Lury, Celia, 39

Lynd, Robert, 181, 184

Industrial Workers of the World (IWW), 131

Lynds, Helen and Robert, 69, 73, 136–143, 145–147, 163, 164

Index

343

Macy, William, 62

Macy’s, 164, 170

and consumption of durable goods, 71; and time saving/using commodities, 75

Maddison, Angus, 65, 68, 77

Oil crisis, 251

Mandel, Ernest, 84, 85

Olney, Martha, 68–69, 71–73, 92, 208

Marcuse, Herbert, 40, 85

Market for lemons, 178

Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), 3, 103

Marshall, Alfred, 214

Owen, John, 48, 53

Martin, Joseph, 247

Marx, Karl, 4, 6, 10; on labor power, 22; on Department I and II, 26; on commodities, 29; on alienation, 82; on the circuit of capital, 96–97; on needs, 97; on the pursuit of exchange value, 270

Packard, Vance, 220, 224, 226, 228, 230–232, 250

Papanek, Viktor, 226, 250

Parfit, Derek, 64

Parker Pens, 189–190

Maslow, A. H., 15, 29

Petersen, Esther, 246–247

May Day Demonstrations, 132

Pigou, Arthur, 6

Maytag, 240

Piketty, Thomas, 59

McCarthyism, 207

Piore, Michael, 25, 26, 84, 89–90, 137, 177

McLuhan, Marshall, 220, 226, 231

Polanyi, Karl, 82, 151

McNeil, George, 82

Pollay, Richard, 37–38, 187

Middletown, 137–145

Poppel, Harvey, 211

Mills, C. Wright, 220

Positional good, 3, 20, 140

Milwaukee, 174

Possessive individualism, 195

Model T Ford, 150, 167, 240, 256

Postbellum, 57, 129

Modigliani, Franco, 65

Pound, Roscoe, 195

Mokyr, Joel, 51

Printer’s Ink, 182

Monopoly capitalism, 162, 223

Private brands, 184–186

Montgomery, David, 50, 57

Progressive era, 133, 195, 219

Moral economy, 225, 229, 246, 252, 257–264, 266

Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, 5

Moynihan, Daniel, 247

Protoindustrial, 56–57, 105

Muskie, Edmund S., 251

Quality control, 162, 200, 246, 282

Nader, Ralph, 207, 247, 249

National Brand Names Association, 185

Rationalization, 140, 154, 158, 199, 204, 262

National Recovery Administration, 164, 195

Reagan, Ronald, 59

Natural Capitalism, 99

Regulation theory, 21–24

Nelson, Walter Henry, 243

Renting, 74, 99–102, 113, 117

Neoliberalism, 59, 260

Republicanism, 128

New Deal, 59, 90, 174, 259–260

Retirement, 41, 63–66, 68, 110

New York City, 132, 175, 176, 251

Riesman, David, 146

Ofer, Avner, 14, 15, 37, 69, 72; and happiness, 17, 42; and household hours, 52;

Robinson, Joan, 271

Robinson, John, 52–53

Roediger, David, 57, 60, 129

344

Index

Roosevelt, Franklin Delano, 164, 191

Strasser, Susan, 92, 181, 182

Roseborough, Howard, 146

Subsistence, 47, 55, 96–97, 102, 219, 276

Rosenzweig, Roy, 51, 57, 136

Suburbanization, 74, 139

Summers, Lawrence, 96

Sabel, Charles, 25, 26, 84, 89, 137, 177

Sumptuary laws, 219

Saillard, Yves, 21, 23, 158

Supreme Court, 130

Samuelson, Paul, 29, 234

Sweezy, Paul, 22

San Francisco, 175, 176

Swiencicki, Mark, 119

Savings, 37, 41, 76, 96, 147, 228; as insurance, 43, 55; patterns in the United States, 63–71; and commensuration, 96; and the life-cycle hypothesis, 98; and welfare states, 102–104; and exponential discounting, 108; and social mobility, 147

Taft-Hartley Act, 58

Tarbell, Ida B., 168

Tedlow, Richard, 167, 194

Textile Color Association, 170

Schor, Juliet, 40, 48, 58, 62, 76, 226

Thaler, Richard, 67, 106, 120

Schwartz, Barry, 33

Thompson, E. P., 50, 57, 81, 219

Thompson, George V., 159

Scitovsky, Tibor, 14, 32–33, 64, 76

Time bind, 53, 60, 117

Sears, 184

Sen, Amartya, 15, 16

Underconsumption, 22–24, 26

Sheafer Pens, 189

Uniform Commercial Code, 168–169, 192

Shewhart, A., 162

Uniform Sales Act, 192

Shorter hours movement, 58, 60, 62, 129, 132–133

United Autoworkers Union (UAW), 132, 177

United Kingdom, 75, 232

Simmel, Georg, 263

Unpopular norms, 62–63

Simon, Herbert, 15

Singularities (economic), 178

Value engineering, 223–224

Slade, Giles, 220, 256

Veblen, Thorstein, 36, 220

Snell, Bradford C., 247–249

Social mobility, 3, 142–147

Wachtel, W. W., 186

Social status, 3, 20, 32, 75, 187, 230, 263; as an explanation for consumption, 36–38

Wage slavery, 129, 130, 132, 133

Wagner Act, 58, 90

Social Structures of Accumulation (SSA), 22, 24–26

Warranty, Express, 189

Warranty, Implied, 151, 153, 188, 192–193, 217

Society of Automative Engineers (SAE), 160, 165

Waste, 99, 161–162, 199, 224, 227, 228, 231; and commensuration, 111; calculation of, 240, 250–254, 256

Society for Democratic Students, 220

Sociological jurisprudence, 195

Solow, Robert, 2

Wastemakers, The, 220, 230, 231–232, 240, 250

Sombart, Werner, 36

Weber, Max, 4–6, 109, 270, 278

Standard packages, 146

Weisskopf, Thomas, 24

Stanley, Amy-Dru, 82, 128–129, 130

Welfare state, 26, 55, 102–104, 278, 298

Stevenson, B., 18

Western Chain Grocers Association, 185

Stiglitz, Joseph, 2

Westinghouse, George, 160

Index

345

Whaples, Robert, 48

Whyte, William H., 146

Wierzbicka, Anna, 125–126

Wilcox, Claire, 182, 184

Wilentz, Sean, 128

Wittgenstein, Ludwig, 271

Wolfers, J., 18

Worcester, Massachusetts, 51, 136

Work hours in Western Europe, 77–78

Working class norm of consumption, 23

Wyland, Charles, 164

Zelizer, Viviana, 95

Zilibotti, Fabrizio, 20, 52

346

Index