Fluent Essays

The instructions and book pdf are attached below. Week of Monday, October 18 Thursday: Class session Assignments (Discussion #9 due by Tuesday, 11:59pm, this week) Part One “The Western Tradition”: “A new public” (#45; video, 26:40 minutes) https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYbocufkwRFAS80nLFShkXSblfcFTXwRH (Fast forward past the introductory graphics) Part Two “Our democracy’s founding ideals were false when they were written. Black Americans have fought to make them true” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/black-history-american-democracy.html “Death by civilization” https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/03/traumatic-legacy-indian-boarding-schools/584293/ “Schools tried to forcibly assimilate indigenous kids. Can the US make amends?” (video, 8 minutes) https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/schools-tried-to-forcibly-assimilate-indigenous-kids-can-the-us-make-amends “A vast wealth gap, driven by segregation, redlining, evictions, and exclusion, separates black and white America” https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2019/08/14/magazine/racial-wealth-gap.html Part Three GPCC, chapter 4, “The nation-state in the culture of capitalism” QUESTIONS TO ANSWER Discussion post #9  Part One · Describe “the age of the nation-states” and “a new public.” · What functions does the nation-state perform in the culture of capitalism (pages 99-100, 102-104)? · Although states (governments) have existed for as much as 7,000 years, how is the nation-state different from previous versions of states (governments)? Part Two · How has the nation-state been constructed from the standpoint of social engineering? How does this pertain to the history of race and ethnic relations in the U.S., including slavery, Native American genocide and oppression, immigration, and forms of racial oppression in general.  250 word minimum for the entire assignment; no maximum word count. Display the word count at the end of your post. MLA FORMAT. NO PLAGIRISING Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism This page intentionally left blank Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism Sixth Edition Richard H. Robbins State University of New York at Plattsburgh Boston Columbus Indianapolis New York San Francisco Upper Saddle River Amsterdam Cape Town Dubai London Madrid Milan Munich Paris Montréal Toronto Delhi Mexico City São Paulo Sydney Hong Kong Seoul Singapore Taipei Tokyo Credits and acknowledgments borrowed from other sources and reproduced, with permission, in this textbook appear on appropriate page within text. Copyright © 2014, 2011, 2008 Pearson Education, Inc., publishing as Prentice Hall, 1 Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. All rights reserved. Manufactured in the United States of America. This publication is protected by Copyright, and permission should be obtained from the publisher prior to any prohibited reproduction, storage in a retrieval system, or transmission in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to use material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, 1 Lake St., Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458. Many of the designations by manufacturers and seller to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Robbins, Richard H. (Richard Howard) Global problems and the culture of capitalism / Richard H. Robbins.—6th ed. p. cm. ISBN-13: 978-0-205-91765-5 (alk. paper) ISBN-10: 0-205-91765-8 (alk. paper) 1. Economic history—1990– 2. Social problems. 3. Capitalism. 4. Consumption (Economics) 5. Poverty. 6. Financial crises. I. Title. HC59.15.R63 2014 330.122—dc22 2010010395 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 ISBN 10: 0-205-91765-8 ISBN 13: 978-0-205-91765-5 Editor in Chief: Ashley Dodge Publisher: Nancy Roberts Editorial Assistant: Molly White Director of Marketing: Brandy Dawson Executive Marketing Manager: Kelly May Marketing Coordinator: Jessica Warren Managing Editor: Denise Forlow Program Manager: Mayda Bosco Production Project Manager: Liz Napolitano Manager, Central Design: Jayne Conte Cover Designer: Bruce Kenselaar Cover Montage Images: top left: ©David Norton Photography/Alamy; top center: ©Jules Glazier/Alamy; top right: ©David W. Hamilton/Alamy; center left: ©dbimages/Alamy; center right: ©tony french/Alamy Director, Digital Media: Brian Hyland Digital Media Project Manager: Tina Gagliostro Full-Service Project Management: Shiny Rajesh/Integra Software Services Pvt. Ltd Printer/Binder: Edwards Brothers / Malloy—Jackson Road Cover Printer: Lehigh / Phoenix Color Text Font: 10/12, Times v Brief Contents Part 1 Introduction: The Consumer, the Laborer, the Capitalist, and the Nation-State in the Society of Perpetual Growth 1 Chapter 1 Constructing the Consumer 12 Chapter 2 The Laborer in the Culture of Capitalism 35 Chapter 3 The Rise and Fall of the Merchant, Industrialist, and Financier 57 Chapter 4 The Nation-State in the Culture of Capitalism 99 Part 2 The Global Impact of the Culture of Capitalism: Introduction 127 Chapter 5 Population Growth, Migration, and Urbanization 133 Chapter 6 Hunger, Poverty, and Economic Development 168 Chapter 7 Environment and Consumption 197 Chapter 8 Health and Disease 220 Chapter 9 Indigenous Groups and Ethnic Conflict 248 Part 3 Resistance and Rebellion: Introduction 275 Chapter 10 Peasant Protest, Rebellion, and Resistance 282 Chapter 11 Anti-Systemic Protest 306 Chapter 12 Religion and Anti-Systemic Protest 329 Chapter 13 Solving Global Problems: Some Solutions and Courses of Action 353 This page intentionally left blank vii Contents Preface xiii Part 1 Introduction: The Consumer, the Laborer, the Capitalist, and the Nation-State in the Society of Perpetual Growth 1 A Primer on Money: The Philosopher’s Stone 3 The Development of Commodity Money 5 The Shift from Commodity to Fiat or Debt Money 7 The Consequences of a System of Debt Money 8 Chapter 1 Constructing the Consumer 12 Remaking Consumption 14 Marketing and Advertising 15 The Transformation of Institutions 17 The Transformation of Spiritual and Intellectual Values 19 The Reconfiguration of Time, Space, and Class 21 Kinderculture in America: The Child as Consumer 23 The Role of Children in Capitalism 23 The Social Construction of Childhood 25 Exporting the Consumer 31 Conclusion 34 Chapter 2 The Laborer in the Culture of Capitalism 35 A Primer on the Elements of Capitalism 36 The Baptism of Money 39 The Construction and Anatomy of the Working Class 40 Characteristics of the Working Class 40 The Growth of Overseas Assembly Plants 45 The Creation of Free Labor 48 The Segmentation of the Workforce 49 Control and Discipline 52 Resistance and Rebellion 54 Conclusion 55 Chapter 3 The Rise and Fall of the Merchant, Industrialist, and Financier 57 The Era of the Global Trader 60 A Trader’s Tour of the World in 1400 60 The Economic Rise of Europe and Its Impact on Africa and the Americas 65 The Birth of Finance and the Tulip Bubble of 1636–1637 70 viii Contents The Era of the Industrialist 74 Textiles and the Rise of the Factory System 77 The Age of Imperialism 78 The Era of the Corporation, the Multilateral Institution, and the Capital Speculator 83 The Rise of the Corporation 83 Bretton Woods and the World Debt 86 The “Second Great Contraction” 92 Conclusion 97 Chapter 4 The Nation-State in the Culture of Capitalism 99 The Origin and History of the State 101 The Evolution of the State 101 The History and Function of the Nation-State 102 Constructing the Nation-State 104 Creating the Other 105 Language, Bureaucracy, and Education 106 Violence and Genocide 109 Spin, Free Trade, and the Role of Energy in the Global Economy 113 Manufacturing Consent: Spin 114 Markets and Free Trade 118 Energy and Technology 120 Conclusion 124 Part 2 The Global Impact of the Culture of Capitalism: Introduction 127 A Primer on Market Externalities: Polanyi’s Paradox 129 Chapter 5 Population Growth, Migration, and Urbanization 133 The Malthusians Versus the Revisionists 135 The Case of India and China 136 The Issue of Carrying Capacity 138 The Ideology of Malthusian Concerns 138 Demographic Transition Theory 141 A Primer on the Determinants of Population Growth and Decline 143 Some Examples of Demographic Change 145 Population Growth in the Periphery 148 Wealth Flows Theory 149 The Social Implications of Wealth Flows Theory 151 The Question of Gender and Power 152 Issues of Immigration 154 Contents ix History of Migration 156 The Economics of Immigration 158 Understanding Illegal Immigration 160 Urbanization and the Growth of Slums 162 Conclusion 167 Chapter 6 Hunger, Poverty, and Economic Development 168 The Evolution of Food Production: From the Neolithic to the Neocaloric 169 From Gathering and Hunting to the Neolithic 170 Capitalism and Agriculture 171 The Neocaloric and the Green Revolution 173 The Politics of Hunger 176 The Anatomy of Famine 177 The Anatomy of Endemic Hunger 179 Solutions and Adaptations to Poverty and Hunger 184 Economic Development 184 The Nature and Growth of the Informal Economy 188 The Nature and Scope of the Informal Economy of Drugs 191 Conclusion 196 Chapter 7 Environment and Consumption 197 The Case of Sugar 202 Sugar Origins and Production 202 Uses of Sugar 202 The Development of the Sugar Complex 203 The Expansion of Sugar Production 203 The Mass Consumption of Sugar 204 Modern Sugar 205 The Story of Beef 206 Creating a Taste for Beef 207 The Emergence of the American Beef Industry 208 Modern Beef 212 The Impact of Production on the Environment: The Effects of Climate Change 213 The Environment, Sustainability, and the Nation-State 217 Conclusion 219 Chapter 8 Health and Disease 220 A Primer on How to Die from an Infectious Disease 225 The Relationship between Culture and Disease 229 Gathering and Hunting to Early Agriculture 229 Cities: “Graveyards of Mankind” 230 x Contents Diseases of Environmental Change 233 Diseases of Human Ecology: Chickens, Pigs, and Wild Birds 235 The Origin of Influenza: Avian Flu and H1N1 235 Aids and the Culture of Capitalism 238 How Did the Disease Spread? 240 Who Gets Infected with AIDS? 243 Who Gets Blamed? 245 Conclusion 246 Chapter 9 Indigenous Groups and Ethnic Conflict 248 The Fate of Indigenous Peoples 251 Some Characteristics of Indigenous Peoples 251 The Process of Ethnocide 252 The Guaraní: The Economics of Ethnocide 259 History and Background 260 Contemporary Development and Guaraní Communities 262 Disadvantaged Majorities and Their Revenge 264 Leveling Crowds 266 Genocide as an Externality of the Market 267 Conclusion 273 Part 3 Resistance and Rebellion: Introduction 275 A Primer on Terrorism 277 Chapter 10 Peasant Protest, Rebellion, and Resistance 282 Malaysia and the Weapons of the Weak 283 Malaysian Peasants and the Green Revolution 284 Fighting Back 286 Obstacles to Resistance 287 Protest and Change 288 Kikuyu and the Mau Mau Rebellion 289 The British in East Africa 289 The White Highlands 291 The Roots of the Rebellion 292 The Rebellion 294 “State of Emergency” 295 The Oath and the Detention Camps 297 Independence 298 The Rebellion in Chiapas 299 Poverty and Inequality in Chiapas 301 The Rebellion and the Global Economy 302 Contents xi The Revolt and the Reactions of the Mexican Government 303 The Future of Peasants 304 Conclusion 305 Chapter 11 Anti-Systemic Protest 306 Protest as Anti-Systemic: The Two World Revolutions 307 The Revolution of 1848 308 The Revolution of 1968 310 The Protests of Labor: Coal Miners in Nineteenth-Century Pennsylvania 311 The Coal Industry and the Worker’s Life 311 Worker Resistance and Protest 314 Destroying Worker Resistance 316 Global Feminist Resistance 317 Gender Relations in the Culture of Capitalism 319 Strategies of Protest 321 Direct Action and Occupy Wall Street 323 Anarchism and Direct Action 325 Conclusion 328 Chapter 12 Religion and Anti-Systemic Protest 329 Indigenous Religious Movements as Anti-Systemic Protest 331 The Ghost Dance 331 The Cargo Cults 332 Zionism in South Africa 334 The Global Challenge of Anti-Systemic Religious Protest 336 Islamic Fundamentalism 338 Islamic Fundamentalism in Iran 339 Protestant Fundamentalism in North America 340 “Terror in the Mind of God” 345 Some Examples of Religious Violence 346 Understanding Religious Violence 351 Conclusion 351 Chapter 13 Solving Global Problems: Some Solutions and Courses of Action 353 The Central Dilemma of Growth 354 The Depletion of Natural Capital/Wealth 357 The Depletion of Political Capital/Wealth 358 The Depletion of Social Capital/Wealth 363 Things We Could Do 372 The Debt Strike 375 Conclusion 376 xii Contents References 379 Name Index 392 Place and Culture Index 398 Subject Index 401 xiii PrefaCe Over the past 400 to 600 years, a culture and society, originating for the most part in Europe and dedicated to the idea of trade and consumption as the ultimate source of well-being, began to expand to all parts of the globe. In many ways it is the most successful culture and society the world has ever seen, and its technology, wealth, and power stand as monuments to its suc- cess; however, accompanying its expansion have been problems—growing social and economic inequality, environmental destruction, mass starvation, and social unrest. Most members of this society and culture perceive these problems as distant from themselves or as challenges for them to meet. However, there is the possibility that these problems, which threaten to negate every- thing this culture has accomplished, are intrinsic to the culture itself. That is the possibility to be explored in this book. The outline of this book emerged when, a few years ago, my colleagues at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, James Armstrong and Mark Cohen, and I began developing a course on global problems. We wanted to create a course that would help students understand the major global issues that they confront in the mass media—problems such as the so-called population explosion, famine and hunger, global environmental destruction, the emergence and spread of new diseases, so-called ethnic conflict and genocides, terrorism, and social protest. We learned quickly that to make the course successful, we had to overcome the often-ethnocentric perspectives of the students, perspectives that were often reinforced by media coverage of global affairs. We needed also to compensate for the students’ lack of backgrounds in anthropology, history, and economics, all crucial for understanding the roots of the problems we were to examine. Finally, we needed to illustrate that the problems we examined were relevant to them, that the problems would affect them either directly or indirectly, and that their actions now or in the future would determine the extent to which the origins of these problems could be acknowledged, let alone ever addressed. The form of this book emerged from our efforts at deal- ing with these pedagogical issues and the classroom interactions that these efforts stimulated. The Focus oF This Book We can summarize our approach in this book as follows: There has emerged over the past five to six centuries a distinctive culture or way of life dominated by a belief in trade and commod- ity consumption as the source of well-being. This culture flowered in Western Europe, reached fruition in the United States, and spread to much of the rest of the world, creating what some anthropologists, sociologists, and historians call the world system. People disagree on the critical factors in the development of this system and even whether it was unique historically, although most agree on certain basic ideas. Among the most important are the assumptions that the driving force behind the spread of the contemporary world system was industrial and corporate capital- ism, and that the spread of the world system is related in some way to the resulting division of the world into wealthy nations and poor nations or into wealthy core, developed, or industrialized areas and dependent peripheral, undeveloped, or nonindustrialized areas. The spread of the capitalist world system has been accompanied by the creation of distinctive patterns of social relations, ways of viewing the world, methods of food production, distinctive diets, patterns of health and disease, relationships to the environment, and so on. However, the spread of this culture has not gone uncontested; there has been resistance in the form of direct and indirect actions—political, religious, and social protest and revolution. How and why capitalist culture developed and the reasons why some groups resisted and continue to resist its development are among the questions posed in this book. The answers to these questions are based on specific assumptions. First, a central tenet of anthropology is that personal, social, cultural, and historical factors determine the point of view xiv Preface any person might have regarding a certain phenomenon. No less is true of those participating in the culture of capitalism who have created a view of global events that we share. Consequently, these views tend to be, to one extent or another, ethnocentric; that is, they describe, evaluate, and judge events solely from a specific cultural perspective. Among the major purposes of anthro- pology is to teach ways to avoid ethnocentrism and appreciate the importance of understanding the beliefs and behaviors of others from their perspectives rather than from our own, a view anthropologists refer to as cultural relativism. To some extent ethnocentrism is unavoidable, and the job of the person who interprets global events—whether a journalist, economist, sociologist, or anthropologist—is to make the event comprehensible to those people for whom that person is writing. Our assumption is that to minimize cultural bias we must recognize that our views of events are partially influenced by our culture and, for that reason, we must make our own culture an object of analysis. Second, we assume that an understanding of global events requires us to recognize that no contemporary culture or society exists independent of what anthropologists refer to as the world system, and that each falls within either the core or the periphery of that system. Using this terminology to refer to different parts of the world permits us to avoid the more value-laden distinctions implicit in the use of terms such as developed or undeveloped, modern or traditional, and First, Second, or Third World. World system theorists often include a third category, semi- periphery, to denote those nation-states or regions that are moving toward the core or that have moved out of the core. These distinctions recognize that countries can move from one category to another. For example, the three nation-states that world system theorists consider to have been dominant in the past four centuries—the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and the United States—all began as semiperipheral to the world system. Third, we assume that global events and actions cannot be adequately understood with- out considering the events that preceded them; we must develop a historical perspective. For example, we live in a period of human history largely defined by a sequence of events that began some four to five hundred years ago, loosely termed the Industrial Revolution. Because each of us has lived during only a particular phase of that history, we tend to take it for granted that the world has always been as it is today. Yet the modern industrial world order is, in historical terms, a very recent event. We are deceived by our biology, by our limited life span, into think- ing of sixty, seventy, or eighty years as a long time, but in the perspective of human history it is a fleeting moment. Human beings have for most of their existence lived as bands of gatherers and hunters, for a shorter time as agriculturists and farmers, and only recently as industrialists and wage laborers. Yet the Industrial Revolution has transformed the world and human societies as has no other event in history. We cannot understand the events, issues, and problems of today’s world without understanding the how’s and why’s of the Industrial Revolution. It will be clear that the emergence of capitalism represents a culture that is in many ways the most successful that has ever been developed in terms of accommodating large numbers of individuals in relative and absolute comfort and luxury. It has not been as successful, however, in integrating all in equal measure, and its failure here remains one of its major problems. It has solved the problems of feeding large numbers of people (although certainly not all), and it has provided unprecedented advances in health and medicine (but, again, not for all). It has pro- moted the development of amazingly complex technological instruments and fostered a level of global communication without precedent. It has united people in common pursuits as no other culture has. Yet it remains to be seen when the balance sheet is tallied whether capitalism repre- sents the epitome of “progress” that some claim. NeW To The sixTh ediTioN Since the publication of the fifth edition of Global Problems and the Culture of Capitalism, we have experienced significant global upheaval as well as heightened concerns over global immigration, urbanization, climate change, and regional conflict, as well as levels of protest, Preface xv all of which are addressed in this, the sixth, edition of the book. Specific changes include the following: • Additional discussion of money as debt, the movement of money, and the consequences and the importance of perpetual growth. • Material on advertising targeted to children and the scope of the practice. • Coverage of immigration, its history, and its social, political, and economic impact. • Coverage of urbanization and its impacts • Discussion of climate change and its impact on the economy and society as a whole. • Timely information on Occupy Wall Street and the philosophy and techniques of Direct Action. • A new, comprehensive Chapter 13 discussing how to address many of the issues raised in the book. Throughout this edition, I have tried to make the nature and origin of complex problems acces- sible to general readers and undergraduates without oversimplifying the gravity of the problems. As always, I welcome comments and communications from readers and can be reached by email at [email protected] In addition, readers are encouraged to use the Web resources, including readings, online videos, and references created especially for the book, at http://www.plattsburgh.edu/legacy. This text is available in a variety of formats—digital and print. To learn more about our programs, pricing options, and customization, visit www.pearsonhighered.com. AckNoWledgmeNTs Many people have contributed to the writing of this book. I have already mentioned my colleagues James Armstrong and Mark Cohen. Others include Alfred Robbins, Michael Robbins, Rachel Dowty, Tom Moran, Philip Devita, Gloria Bobbie, Douglas Skopp, Edward Champagne, Vincent Carey, Larry Soroka, Ellen Fitzpatrick, Ann Kimmage, Michael Miranda, John Hess, Jan Rinaldi, Tina Charland, Tim Harnett, Daphne Kutzer, Monica van Beusekom, Russell Kleinbach, Peggy Lindsey, Dan and Mary Abel, Amy Weisz Predmore, Mark White, Barbara Harris, Art Orme, Sam Baldwin, and Mary Turner, along with the many students who helped me better articu- late important issues. I also thank members of the email list H-World, particularly its moderator Patrick Manning; Richard Winkel, moderator of the email list Activ-L ([email protected] edu), and its many contributors; and many of the students who used one or another version of this book and who provided invaluable feedback. I would also like to thank the book’s reviewers. Reviewers of the first edition were John L. Aguilar, Charles O. Ellenbaum, Cynthia Mahmood, Richard Moore, Jon Olson, and Dave Winther. Reviewers of the second edition were Elliot Fratkin, Smith College; James Loucky, Western Washington University; Luis A. Vivanco, University of Vermont; and Vaughn Bryant, Texas A&M University. Reviewers of the third edition were Eric Mielants, Fairfield University; William Leggett, Middle Tennessee; Nancy McDowell, Beloit College; and Benjamin Brewer, James Madison University. Reviewers of the fifth edition were George Esber, Miami University, Middletown; Suzanne Scheld, California State University, Northridge; James Sewastynowicz, Jacksonville State University; and Miguel Vasquez, Northern Arizona University. I owe a special debt of gratitude to Sylvia Shephard for her initial support of the project; to Sarah Kelbaugh, Dave Repetto, Nancy Roberts, and Barbara Reiley of Pearson and Jennifer Jacobson and Dan Vest of Ohlinger Publishing Services for guiding the project through to its present edition; as well as to Shiny Rajesh, who managed the latest edition, and Sayed Zakaullah, whose copyediting will make reading the book far easier than it would have been otherwise. And special thanks go to Amy, Rebecca, and Zoey, who tolerated with unusual understanding my periods of self-imposed isolation. Needless to say, the final form of the book, for better or worse, is the result of my own decisions. http://www.plattsburgh.edu/legacy www.pearsonhighered.com This page intentionally left blank [W]hat difference it would make to our understanding if we looked at the world as a whole, a totality, a system, instead of as a sum of self-contained societies and cultures; if we understood better how this totality developed over time; if we took seriously the admonition to think of human aggregates as “inextricably involved with other aggregates, near and far, in weblike, netlike, connections.” —Eric Wolf, Europe and the People without History On or about December 1910, wrote novelist Virginia Woolf, human character changed.1 On his repeated visits to the United States, Frenchman André Siegfried (1928; see also Leach 1993:266) noted much the same thing: “A new society has come to life in America,” he said. “It was not clear in 1901 or 1904; it was noticeable in 1914, and patent in 1919 and 1925.” Samuel Strauss (1924, 1927; see also Leach 1993:266), a journalist and philosopher writing in the 1920s, suggested the term consumptionism to characterize this new way of life that, he said, created a person with a philosophy of life that committed human beings to the production of more and more things—“more this year than last year, more next year than this”— and that emphasized the “standard of living” above all other values. It is obvious, he continued, that Americans have come to consider their standard of living as a somewhat sacred acquisition, which they will defend at any price. This means that they would be ready to make many an intellectual or even moral concession in order to maintain that standard. Introduction: The Consumer, the Laborer, the Capitalist, and the Nation-State in the Society of Perpetual Growth P a r t O n e 1 The quote, which has been widely used (see, e.g., Fjellman 1992:5; Lears 1983), appeared in an essay, “Mr.  Bennett and Mrs. Brown,” in The Captain’s Death Bed and Other Essays, but was originally part of a paper Woolf read to the Heretics, Cambridge, on May 18, 1924. “On or about December 1910 human character changed … The change was not sudden and definite … But a change there was nevertheless, and since one must be arbitrary, let us date it about the year 1910” (Woolf 1950). 2 Part I • Introduction There is no question that in America, the half-century from 1880 to 1930 marked a major tran- sition in the rate and level of commodity consumption—the purchase, use, and waste of what comedian George Carlin called “stuff.” Food production grew by almost 40 percent from 1899 to 1905; the production of men’s and women’s ready-made clothing, along with the produc- tion of costume jewelry, doubled between 1890 and 1900; and glassware and lamp production went from 84,000 tons in 1890 to 250,563 tons in 1914. In 1890, 32,000 pianos were sold in the United States; by 1904, the number sold increased to 374,000 (Leach 1993:16). During this period, the perfume industry became the country’s tenth largest; at one depart- ment store, sale of toiletries rose from $84,000 to $522,000 between 1914 and 1926. The manufacture of clocks and watches went from 34 million to 82 million in ten years. By the late 1920s, one of every six Americans owned an automobile. Of course, these figures are dwarfed by what Americans and others around the world consume today. World and national consumption expanded at an unprecedented pace during the twentieth century, with household consumption expenditures reaching $37 trillion in 2010, three times the level of 1975 and six times that of 1950. In 1900, real consumption expenditure was barely $1.5 trillion (United Nations Development Programme 1997). Today there are as many cars in the United States as the number of people with drivers’ licenses, and the rest of the world is doing everything that it can to catch up. China and India, alone, have added at least half-a-billion middle-class consumers in the new century demanding everything that consumers in the West desire. However, although consumption rates were not nearly as high as they are today, the early twentieth century is notable because it marked the early phase of what Ernest Gellner (1983:24) called the society of perpetual growth and the creation of a new type of culture: consumer capitalism. The emergence of the society of perpetual growth and the culture of capitalism marked a new stage in an ongoing global historical process that began (to the extent that it can be said to have a beginning) anytime from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. The creation of the human type that characterizes this stage, the consumer, followed soon after the emer- gence of two other historically unique categories of human types: the capitalist and the laborer. Merchants had existed, of course, for thousands of years, and people had always labored to produce goods and liked to consume what they’d produced. But never before in history has there existed a society founded on three categories of people: the capitalist, whose sole purpose is to invest money to earn more; the laborer, whose sole means of support comes from the sale of his or her labor; and the consumer, whose sole purpose is to purchase and consume ever-increasing quantities of goods and services. At some point in their lives, virtually everyone plays the roles of …