Submitted by Charles Hugh-Smith via OfTwoMinds blog,
This is what our mode of production optimizes: ugliness, debt-serfdom, and servitude to politically dominant corporations.
An insightful correspondent recently remarked on the striking transition of American neighborhoods from commercial districts dominated by locally owned businesses to streets lined with look-alike outlets of Corporate America. This transition is so obvious that few even comment on it, much less ask if this wholesale replacement is in the best interests of residents and consumers.
I have long suggested starting any inquiry with a simple question: cui bono— to whose benefit? Let’s add a second essential question: what does the system optimize?
By this I mean: what is optimized by the infrastructure, regulations, political structure, etc.–what we call the mode of production.
I think it’s abundantly clear that our mode of production optimizes large-scale global corporations, which have access to the capital and expertise needed to optimize production, management, employee training and discipline, supply chains and the purchase of political influence.
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The net result of nearly-free credit for corporations is a Corporatocracy that constantly expands its financial and political power. Governments come and go, candidates come and go, and political movements come and go, but the Corporatocracy remains at the top of the power pyramid because it can always afford to “buy” as much democracy as it needs for the state to protect its power and profits.
Our mode of production optimizes the commoditization of everything: computer chips, fish and chips, labor, expertise, everything. It’s very convenient if you have a reliable vehicle; if not, tough luck–convenience is for those with cars.
If you want a burger that’s essentially identical everywhere in the nation–i.e. a burger that has been ruthlessly commoditized–then Corporate America’s fast food chains are the place to go.
If you want a hotel room that’s identical to hundreds of other rooms, a store that has identical items and nearly identical layout no matter which outlet you enter– Corporate America’s chains are the place to go.
That this commoditization / homogenization has consequences other than low prices and convenience is not advertised. One consequence is every town and street in the country looks alike: a garish row of one corporate outpost after another.
The ugliness of this commoditized wasteland is so obvious that it’s assumed to be unavoidable.
Another consequence is entry-level commoditized jobs don’t teach new workers the wide spectrum of skills that once came with working for small businesses. Workers in Corporate America are taught the company’s system and trained to respond with genteel customer service in every interaction with customers.
How often do we hear something like “thank you for visiting Engulf and Devour” repeated semi-robotically?
Here’s another often-overlooked consequence: money flows out of the community to distant corporate headquarters, where it is distributed to obscenely wealthy managers and owners of the company’s stock.
When businesses were locally owned, all the profit and overhead generated by sales stayed in the community. What characterizes economically depressed ghettos isn’t just a lack of money–it’s the channeling of all the money in the community to distant Corporate HQs and predatory corporate chains such as payday lenders and credit card issuers (you’re going to love paying 25% interest!).
The low cost and convenience of commoditized Corporate America has high costs that we simply don’t measure: the ugliness of our shared spaces, the boring sameness of every commercial strip, the dearth of entry-level jobs outside a commoditizing corporate hierarchy, and the low property tax rates Corporate America “buys” with its immense lobbying machinery.
The low cost and convenience are presumed to make this colonization of locally owned businesses irresistible. Commoditizing everything certainly optimizes the efficient production and management of services and goods.
But how much has been lost to this wholesale colonization by globally optimized corporations? What price do we put on a diversity of locally owned businesses? What price do we put on the relative charm of a walkable street? How much property tax flows into the local government from a shuttered mall that lost its Corporate America anchor retailers?
Colonization introduces an amazing array of bargain-priced goods and services. The “natives” are happy to have access to all the goodies, but a short time later, the colonizers own the land, the markets, the politicians, the media and the labor force, and everyone who once had an independent livelihood and independent political voice is impoverished or is now an employee of the plantation, taking orders from the Big Boss.
This is what our mode of production optimizes: ugliness, debt-serfdom, and servitude to politically dominant corporations that have commoditized supply chains, marketing, the construction of outlets, the labor to operate them and the extraction of profits.
That’s how we’ve come to love our servitude–oops, I mean “low prices and convenience.”
I dislike a lot of the corporate sameness.
However, some of it is to blame on the merchants themselves. I remember in the 70’s it was a real PITA to get building supplies. The assholes they hired at the lumber yards were lazy, stupid, uncommunicative, careless – fucks. They were doing you a favor just by being there. Sometimes they would bring up lumber that looked like shit – they knew it – just hoping you wouldn’t make a fuss. Then they would say “well you just can’t cherry pick….” How ’bout you get me some 2×4’s that aren’t twisted 180 degrees? There was a time I ordered several windows. Inquired several times as they were past the delivery date. Eventually they told me they must have not ordered them.
All those lumber yards are gone. Home Depot put the nail in their coffins. Now you can pick out your own stuff in a heated / air conditioned store. Some stuff get’s better.
Ok Dutch, but what does that have to do with making that shit in China? Quote from article “Here’s another often-overlooked consequence: money flows out of the community to distant corporate headquarters, where it is distributed to obscenely wealthy managers and owners of the company’s stock.” I call it the Wal-Mart effect. Sucking us dry. And idiots have been pissing on me here for years over tariffs. Wake up, it’s happening. And it’s going to be really good for all of us.
I would give anything for an old fashioned small hardware store where I could run in and buy a hammer without walking half a mile from the parking lot to the hammers aisle to find it. Now they are pushing us to fight with the self-service machines which demand human intervention half the time anyway to pay for the hammer. But alas, the only choices are Home Depot and Lowe’s. The handy little store went bye bye when HD moved in.
I try to give my biz to local small biz whenever possible, even if it’s a a little inconvenient. Mom and pop hardware store vs big box, etc…
Even food, etc… We have traveled cross country and we made it a point to stop at the small town restaurants vs big box. Got a much better feel about the local people and culture, even though they thought is was odd we (tourists) would venture off the beaten path. Was really fun, especially for our then young teenagers.
Oh it’s even worse than you think. Just recently I needed a simple stereo amp for my kitchen. None to be had anywhere in LA. The big box stores only sold the standard crap that you put under your tv and the specialty stores only sold the fancy stuff. You couldn’t buy a simple stereo amp anywhere so I turned to amazon. They had one but you couldn’t touch it. You couldn’t listen to it. You had to take it on faith that they had your back. And of course, they don’t.
These criminals have driven all of the stores out of business and then they have paired their offerings down to the minimum because that is good business. So you can’t get what you want any more. You can only get what they can make the most money on.
“The net result of nearly-free credit for corporations is a Corporatocracy that constantly expands its financial and political power.”
The simple cure for this is to raise interest rates to about 8%, which BTW is the normal median interest rate for almost 80 years. That one act would clean up a lot of crap. A forest fire for the financialization of America. Even better would be a Paul Volcker to come in and jack it up to 16%. Mass carnage in the financial world for sure. But also the wholesale slaughter of a lot of the garbage that we CASH PAYING PRODUCTIVE consumers that don’t want debt have been putting up with for years, while the irresponsible sheeple just keep kicking the can and doubling down on more debt serfdom.
Brilliant analysis of the corporatocracy that runs the planet!
I was just at Engulf and Devour the other day for my Orwell 1984 T shirt but they were out of2XXL’s. Arby’s was across the lot, so it was a worthwhile trip.
By and large, more mass consumers like corporate outlets better than mom and pop shops. Rich people like the boutique thing, but Middle Americans do not. This is not going to change without a real revolution.
It is a vicious circle. Consumers buy stuff from national chains because it is cheaper. This takes money out of the community so consumers have less to spend. With less to spend, consumers buy stuff at national chains because it is cheaper. And on and on and on.
The only way to break the cycle is to do things differently, such as:
1. Don’t buy shit you don’t need!
2. Buy real food at farmer’s markets and local grocers and butcher shops and learn how to cook.
3. Don’t ever go to McDonalds or the national fast food chains. Use Yelp to find a good local restaurant or hamburger place or taco wagon or food truck.
4. If you need a paint brush or a few screws, go to your local hardware store rather than Home Depot.
Make an effort to shop local. You will not be able to completely stop using Amazon or going to Costco, but the more of the money you spend locally, the better for your community and you.
Pathetic. When I saw a kid there was a stupid song that went they all look yicky tacky and they all look the same. It was about Levitt Town, a place where the houses did look alike but allowed people to beat the housing shortages and the growth of a sick urban America.
So you can take this argument and shove it. What the author argues for is control via higher prices where quaint towns remain for the priviledged and the proles know their place.
‘Cars’ captured this very nicely. Radiator Springs is the America we’ve left in our rear-view mirror. Main Streets dominated by locally-owned businesses are as archaic as a 1953 Hudson Hornet. Where I live (Charlotte, MI) we have the same issues as other smaller cities – big-boxes on the edge of town and a Main Street that has to find a way to survive. If I were opening a business downtown, I’d choose something like ‘Sarge’s Surplus’ from Cars, because Army surplus is something Walmart doesn’t sell and therefore can’t undercut.
The irony of the K-Mart slo-mo collapse, after their having been the original big-box, is not lost on me, nor, I suspect, on many reading these words. Their replacement by online retainers is cold comfort, however, as they are even more remote from Main Street, both in terms of capital flows and in terms of ownership and employment opportunities.
If enough of us embrace localism, perhaps some revival is possible, but the headwinds of internationalist finance ‘capitalism’ and mass consumer culture are strong indeed.