Dear Friends,
It seems to me, one lens through which we could examine human history, is that of luxuries changing into necessities. Take bread for example. During the ice age, and even after farming had been adopted, bread was a luxury item. If it could be had at all. Then it was unleavened. Once wheat production became consistent and dependable, and leavening became known, bread became a necessity. It went from a total luxury item to a staple. Today bread has become a side dish. Every item you take for granted is the same. A sewing needle was a luxury item, until the peddlers showed up, selling them a dime a dozen. Then they became necessities. Imagine the labor saved using a metal sewing needle over a thorn to sew clothes? In fact everything we take for granted today was at one time a luxury.
The desire for a better life draws us to luxury, then industry drives down the cost, leading to widespread adoption. Which makes it a necessity. People are like water. We seek to achieve our goals with the least effort. Given several paths, water will mostly take the easiest path… as will people. Labor saving devices are an example of an easier path to a desired outcome. A washboard is easier to use than a rock, even as a washing machine is easier to use, then a washboard. Given the choice, most people will opt for a washing machine and detergent, over a rock and urine, to do their wash. Because it’s the easier path to the goal. Often we don’t consciously think of why we adopt a new means to a goal. That new means however is always the easier path.
Each generation building upon the past to make the world easier to live in. My grandmother had a Home Comfort wood stove, that she fed 13 children from, and heated their house in winter. I’m sure her mother looked at that huge wood stove, and tsked at it… How Florence was spoiled with such a luxury. Along with an ice box too! How many women today would like to have to start a fire in the stove hours before a meal? We turn a knob and a fire appears. The point being, my grandmother had it better than her mother, who had it better than hers… because each generation builds upon the last. Improving the lot of Man thereby. The luxury of the past becoming the necessities of today. A wall telephone was the acme of luxury at one time, even as cell phones are necessities today.
Far from endangering the worker, free markets accelerate this tendency, to improve mankind’s lot. By greasing the mechanism. Marx argued that the mechanical loom would lead to mass starvation of the working class. “Thus a forest of uplifted arms demanding work becomes ever thicker, while the arms themselves become ever thinner. .” Was the rhetoric as I recall. The introduction of the mechanical loom, however, led to the lowering of the cost of a wool coat. While other industries picked up the labor. Which raised the lot of the worker by increasing his pay and allowing him to wear a wool coat to work, instead of stuffing his shirt with straw, to keep warm. In this case, and in all others, industry improved the lot of the worker in both remuneration and comfort.
Regulations hinder and can even reverse this tendency of Mankind to better his lot. By tossing sand into the mechanism. Regulations protect entrenched industry at cost to innovation. Slowing and even stopping the inevitable march to creating new luxuries. As it did in the Soviet Union. Where Khrushchev had Nuclear weapons are more important than washing machines. Industry that’s mired in taxes and regulation is unable to drive down the cost of luxury, so it doesn’t become necessity. Showing us there’s one force in the world, capable of stopping mankind’s march to better lives… government. Despite the constant push by individuals to make labor more efficient by innovation, and those innovations becoming luxuries, and then necessities… the power of law and taxes can stop it.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
