Reading Analysis - 12/11

A.) The piece I chose to read was the Sumptuary Manifesto. The whole piece, written by an anonymous source who supports the "Peerless leader," is a drastic attack on consumerism. Taxes, tariffs, and other prohibitive restrictions are laid out in huge numbers so as to reduce the material spending of the society. It's everyone's "social responsibility" to abide by these laws which serve the ultimate purpose of removing material consumerism. These people obviously have not been taught any level of basic economics. There are so many things wrong this it's hard to find a place to begin. First of all, price ceilings are a staple point in the laws because "to allow markets to go uncontrolled would be to 'ascribe a magical automatism to the price system'" (p. 122). Markets have a way of correcting themselves; they have a built-in feedback system called prices. Obviously these people don't understand that. Also, the laws talk about a big international tariff in order to keep the valuable resources that poorer countries have within the country. This is also laughable because production and exchange is the way countries get richer; self-sufficiency is the road to poverty and preventing trade with other countries only makes them poorer, or at least prevents them from getting richer. Finally, all these restrictions on material consumption such as restrictions on buying alcohol, clothes, food, etc. could all be avoided if you just allowed the price system to act. Prices will rise and fall accordingly and material goods that were once easy to purchase become more expensive and therefore people have less incentive to buy them. All this adds up to a pretty hilarious idea that was ACTUALLY CONSIDERED!! That, in my opinion, is the most hilarious point of all.

B.) What's so wrong with material consumerism to begin with? Is this just one big attack on capitalism?
     Doesn't it take up more resources to enforce all these laws?
     What do you think will happen in the end as a result of these regulations?

C.) This short, 4-page article actually does a good job of summing up a lot of things we've learned in Economics so far, especially regarding markets, self-sufficiency and price ceilings. There are obviously a lot of things wrong with this excerpt economically and identifying them helps to reinforce what we have learned in the class.