>>> sawicky at epinet.org 09/26/00 01:50PM >>>
At the end of the day, value under consumer choice hinges on how people think about a commodity, not about what it cost to produce, nor about what you or I think it's value is.
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CB: But in the economy as a whole, what the mass of consumers as a whole is paid in wages puts a limit on how much can be bought, how much value can be realized.
It is not true that every commodity could use a swisher like trademark to pump up people to buy at a high price and still have every commodity that is made sold at the pumped up price. Not every commodity can pull a Nike at the same time. Nike's price gets paid with some of the value of "butter" or whatever commodities don't have their value realized because someone spends their butter money on Nikes.
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There are costs, of course, to building brand-name recognition, so the mark-up is not really the issue. It only seems to be when something is created with high fixed cost and minimal marginal cost.
Ironically, brand as value is a more social type of consumption than, say, $2K stereo systems in custom designed music rooms. You don't buy something with a swoosh to wear in your living room; you buy it for purposes of display. Of course, the implied social interaction is a warped aspect of capitalist culture.
mbs