[lbo-talk] Making beautiful stuff

[Cseniornyc at aol.com]

Doug Henwood writes : "My office is in Soho, 
and I'm here almost every  day, surrounded by luxury goods, in 
boutiques and on people. Yeah, sure,  there's conspicuous consumption 
going on, at highly inflated prices. But the  stuff is still beautiful 
- why deny that/"
Comment: Well maybe is not Gucci, but since you are in Soho, go the corner  
of Broadway and Prince to the Prada Store, take the elevator all the way down  
and you'll find lots of women pumps whose average price is $1,500 . I've seen  
these prices  with my own eyes and this in a summer sale! I don't know  about 
their beauty. Nothing wrong with it. I thought we were talking  
price/cost,because next we can consider the "beauty" of a $48,000 Michel  Perchin pen,or a 
$300,000 Breguetwatch or a $225,000 Ferrari,etc,etc
Now if these items were manufactured in China their cost/price would be  
severely reduced. But then wouldn't  their "beauty"suddenly disappear   as they 
become available to the commoners?
One issue here could be that desire for commercialized beauty is a very  
American thing associated with "the pursuit of happiness"which in turn is  
associated with the acquisition of private wealth and not with public  goods.
Thereis a very new good article on this subject by Julian Edney entitled  
"Greed"in the latest issue of the Post-Autistic Economics Review 
(_www.paecon.net_ (http://www.paecon.net) )
Cristobal Senior
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