The Second Wave Producer and Consumer
December 2nd 2007 11:09
The power of the market in capitalist economies is huge. The market puts together producer and consumer when they exchange goods and services. Who are then this producer and consumer?
Reading Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave makes me think. The market existed before capitalism and in fact agrarian societies had one for the exchange of whatever people had created in excess.
What makes, in Toffler’s terminology, first wave agrarian societies typical was the fact that most of what was produced by the peasant was also consumed by him. A peasant’s production purposefully fed him through the year.
In a capitalist economy though, the producer – be him the factory worker or the lawyer – is also a consumer but with different hats. The worker may manufacture bearings but buy housing, food, transportation and so on from other producers.
This separation of producer and consumer came about with the introduction of division of labour. On the other hand, this dichotomy places a great deal of power in whoever controls the market.
Says Toffler: “The cleavage between these two roles – producer and consumer – created at the same time a dual personality. The very same person who (as a producer) was taught by family, school and boss to defer gratification, to be disciplined, controlled, restrained, obedient, to be a team player was simultaneously taught (as a consumer) to seek instant gratification, to be hedonistic rather than calculating, to abandon discipline, to pursue individualistic pleasure – in short, to be a totally different kind of person. In the West especially, the full firepower of advertising was trained on the consumer, urging her of him to borrow, to buy on impulse, to ‘Fly now, pay later’, and, in so doing, to perform a patriotic service by keeping the wheels of the economy turning.”1
Funny, isn’t it?
1. Toffler, Alvin, The Third Wave, Pan Books Ltd, London, 1980, ISBN: 0330263374.
Reading Alvin Toffler’s The Third Wave makes me think. The market existed before capitalism and in fact agrarian societies had one for the exchange of whatever people had created in excess.
What makes, in Toffler’s terminology, first wave agrarian societies typical was the fact that most of what was produced by the peasant was also consumed by him. A peasant’s production purposefully fed him through the year.
In a capitalist economy though, the producer – be him the factory worker or the lawyer – is also a consumer but with different hats. The worker may manufacture bearings but buy housing, food, transportation and so on from other producers.
This separation of producer and consumer came about with the introduction of division of labour. On the other hand, this dichotomy places a great deal of power in whoever controls the market.
Says Toffler: “The cleavage between these two roles – producer and consumer – created at the same time a dual personality. The very same person who (as a producer) was taught by family, school and boss to defer gratification, to be disciplined, controlled, restrained, obedient, to be a team player was simultaneously taught (as a consumer) to seek instant gratification, to be hedonistic rather than calculating, to abandon discipline, to pursue individualistic pleasure – in short, to be a totally different kind of person. In the West especially, the full firepower of advertising was trained on the consumer, urging her of him to borrow, to buy on impulse, to ‘Fly now, pay later’, and, in so doing, to perform a patriotic service by keeping the wheels of the economy turning.”1
Funny, isn’t it?
1. Toffler, Alvin, The Third Wave, Pan Books Ltd, London, 1980, ISBN: 0330263374.
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