Totally random: over my spring break I had some dental work done and so I'm trying to take better care of my teeth. Every dentist on Earth seems to endorse the SoniCare toothbrush, so I picked one up for $70. Then I discovered that the battery powered SoniCare Xtreme is only $30. In a side by side comparison, they have identical performance. Both are great, but the Xtreme is definitely a deal.
Currently I'm reading the book NoLogo by Naomi Klein. I've resisted reading it for a long time, as I thought it would be a typical leftist rant against the big corporations that sell me nice toothbrushes. However, I saw Naomi on a Frontline episode on marketing titled The Persuaders(http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/persuaders/view/) and she came across as articulate and thoughtful. So, I jumped in.
The book is really interesting. Her basic argument is that during the 1990's, businesses decided to outsource their production to developing nations and use the savings on massive marketing campaigns to convince shoppers to pay premium prices for otherwise generic goods like lattes, shoes, and clothing. This was in response to the commodification of many products and the split of consumers into two camps; value shoppers (WalMart et al) and luxury shoppers ($200 Nikes and Louis Vitton bags). However, the loss of jobs to outsourcing and exploitative labor practices led to a backlash against the brand images company's were so carefully crafting (Nike, Kathy Lee Gifford, Levi's).
The book was first published in 2000, and a few things have happened since then. First, brands found that they were especially vulnerable to the exposure of their less admirable practices, such as the use of child and prison labor, forced overtime, and the payment sub-poverty wages. This ushered in the era of corporate social responsibility reporting and efforts to at least maintain the appearance of ethical practices. Second, some innovative brands such as American Apparel, Harley Davidson, and Toyota are now using their American manufacturing prescience as a point of differentiation against outsourcing competitors (most clothing are now made in China and GM shifted substantial production from Detroit to Mexico and beyond). However, the trend toward 'everyday low prices' and 'mass luxury' has continued, if not accelerated.
What hasn't occurred is any sort of public awareness of the gaping chasm in income disparity as the middle class has been eroded and CEO and shareholder profits have reached record highs. I see this as an extension of the American 'bootstrap' fantasy that ignores rigid class barriers and perpetuates the myth that cutting taxes on the top 0.1% of earners is good because someday we'll all be in the top tax bracket. The truth is that the class you are born into will largely determine the class you spend your life in. There are the odd exceptions (I consider myself to have grown up in the lower-middle/lower class, but now go to Oxford). However, the general rule is that if your born into the working poor, grow up surrounded by poverty, and attend a hellishly neglected public school, you're probably going to spend your life in a cycle of poverty.
One thing I found interesting about the Virginia Tech shooting was that the main complaint of the perpetrator, psycho as he was, was class disparities. This hasn't exactly become of topic of discussion, nor has America's entrenched phobia of even the most pragmatic gun controls.
As for me, I've always been hyper-aware of class distinctions and have struggled to leap the chasm into the 'haves' category, as I believe it will continue to become more and more difficult to make that transition in future generations. As for corporate America, I'm a bit ambivalent. As a business student, I've been taught the efficient market theory that resources should be directed to their most efficient uses so as to maximize total societal gain. If the Chinese can make our t-shirts cheaper, both the Chinese gain from new jobs and American consumers gain for lower prices. However, it's hard to see how, barring basic global environmental and labor standards, this will result in anything but a protracted race to the bottom.
This is why I support the WTO. Only an organization like the WTO can broker global standards on environmental and labor issues and prevent the wholesale debasement of people's quality of life in the name of free market capitalism devoid of all social responsibility. I think we'll gradually get there as nations like China develop a middle class that becomes more demanding, in the same way that Americans rebelled against sweatshop and child labor in the 19th century. The question is when.
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This is the blog of Richard Conn, Oxford MBA. I'm originally from Vancouver, Washington, but have lived in LA for the past ten years. So far, I've traveled to 26 countries and have a passion for digital marketing.
