My latest NYT column hits some familiar themes: Aesthetics is up, Veblen was wrong, prices tell us more than technocrats can measure...
OSCAR WILDE defined a cynic as someone who "knows the price of everything, and the value of nothing." To many people, that sounds like an economist or an executive.
But Wilde's witticism ignores what prices do. They convey information about how people value different goods, including the intangibles an aesthete like Wilde would care about most.
Those hard-to-count intangibles are an increasingly important part of the economy. Competition has pushed quality so high and prices so low that many businesses can no longer distinguish themselves with price and performance. To add value, they turn to aesthetics: the look and feel of people, places and things.
The rest is here.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 13, 2003 • Comments
Another cool discovery from my online bibliographical research: The Premiere Issue Project, a collection of magazine debut issues, with emphasis on the editors' statements of purpose.
The bibliography for TSOS, which has been consuming much of my web time lately, is almost finished. It's amazing how many online source links you can find if you're really diligent.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 13, 2003 • Comments
RiShawn Biddle reviews Schwarzenegger's business record in the LA Business Journal and finds it pretty impressive--especially since RiShawn is a Forbes-trained cynic. (Via Matt Welch.)
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 12, 2003 • Comments
Researching the online bibliography for The Substance of Style, I came across this great site that links by date to NYT articles from the past three years (and a few older ones). Its dedication reads:
These web pages are dedicated to my Dad, Tsien-Chung Chou (1902-2000), who read avidly daily & joyfully The New York Times for over 50 years.
The site also includes an archives of NYT articles mentioning Mark Twain, beginning with a brief book review from May 1, 1867.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 12, 2003 • Comments
And an annual conference. (Thanks for reader Kevin Connors for the link.)
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 12, 2003 • Comments
From HughHewitt:
What's the difference between Angelyne and Arianna?
1. Angelyne has two fixed positions.
2. You can understand Angelyne.
3. Angelyne has a following.
UPDATE: Peter Robinson, author of the new and wonderful How Ronald Reagan Changed My Life, submits:
4. Angelyne is doing the best she can. Arianna knows better.
I'm not so sure about #2, but maybe it's a comment on policy, not accents.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 11, 2003 • Comments
Peter Beinart's analysis of how the Clinton presidency left the Democrats with no strong governors as presidential candidates is astute as far as it goes. But like most pundits, Beinart misses the core of Howard Dean's appeal: He treats the voters as intelligent people looking for substance, rather than rubes looking for vague slogans and big hair. He has a wonkish charisma. I've been hearing about Dean's potential for the past couple of years, ever since Professor Postrel caught him on C-SPAN and pegged him as the Democrats' rising star for 2004. That was before Iraq, before 9/11, before the Bush tax cuts, before all the issues that supposedly animate Dean's supporters. And Steve generally votes Republican.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 11, 2003 • Comments
Bush finally picks an EPA head, and this time he seems to have gotten someone who's actually thought about environmental policy. No one ever says it in public, because she's so popular with reporters and northeastern women (often the same people), but Christie Whitman was a symbolic appointment, in over her head from her first day to the last.
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 11, 2003 • Comments
Appearing on the Today Show, Arnold Schwarzenegger seemed to equate symbolism and substance, just the sort of thinking that got California into its current mess. Accordingn to the MSNBC.com report, he
said he was unfamiliar with one of the hottest issues among the state's business leaders, saying he did not know whether he would repeal the state's paid family leave law, the only such state law in the nation.
"I would have to get into that," he said "I'm very much for families, I'm very much for children and children's issues. ... We have to think about the future of the state."
On the other hand, maybe once he "got into that," he'd discover that the law is a really bad idea. But did he really start a campaign without getting some policy briefings beforehand?
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 08, 2003 • Comments
Hugh Hewitt, a conservative California Republican activist as well a talk radio host, is strongly endorsing Arnold for governor. He gives his reasons--including a smart tie-in to the South Carolina Senate race--and concludes, "The purists have to get over it and get behind a winning effort."
Posted by Virginia Postrel on August 08, 2003 • Comments