β Scribed by Kaj Ilmonen
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
At the beginning of this century consumer problems in Europe were concentrated on the economic and functional aspects of consumption. These were concrete realities which were felt so strongly that efforts were made to solve them independently, e.g., by consumer co-operation.
With steadfast extension of the market, consumer problems have become more diffuse. This is due to several circumstances: (a) the functional aspects of commodities have become more complex and their origin more difficult to identify; (b) the functional and symbolic aspects have become more entangled; (c) the traditional cultural distinction between good and bad in consumption has collapsed at the same time as new, branded products have made it more difficult to build up a new cultural code.
As a result there is a problem of how to combine --in consumer choice --the symbolic and the functional dimensions of a commodity. One may say that it is typical for modern consumption that there are no rigid choice criteria and that uncertainty is inherent in consumer choice. If this holds true one can use the Durkheimian concept of anomie in describing the main problem in modern European consumption.
H o w to organize work and how to enjoy its results are among the great questions of mankind that have always aroused the passions of philosophers and c o m m o n e r s alike. Sometimes attention has focussed on work, and sometimes on consumption, yet relative emphasis put on the two aspects at different times throughout E u r o p e a n history is most revealing.
Contrary to what might at first be assumed, in early times in E u r o p e one thought only about consumption and not about its prerequisites, even though these were harsh and scarce. The prevailing idea in the ancient city states was that consumption, and not work, belonged to the category of h u m a n values. Thus the utopias of antiquity were basically consumer utopias (Lafargue, 1907, pp. 9--26; Valmin, 1937, pp. 8--10).
Although utopias in the Middle Ages took new forms, consumption continued to be the main emphasis. In Thomas More's dream world, wants are simply satisfied in a state of nature (More, 1895).
However, the utopia of classical political e c o n o m y was quite different. It was no longer sufficient to enjoy the fruits of nature. The aim was to increase material wealth and satisfy growing needs (Carlsen, Schanz, Schmidt, & Thomsen, 1980, pp. 30--34). However, material welfare could not be obtained free but was achieved only by work and the ever increasing production of use-values. Characteristically, classical political e c o n o m y states for the first time in the history of thought that the correlative of productivity is labour, quantitative wealth the correlative of use-value, and demand the correlative of needs (Ilmonen, 1985a, p. 34). In this way attention was transferred from the problems of consumption to those of production.
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