Understanding the sphere of Consumption (with particular reference to the commodity fetish)

(photo courtesy of contemporarycondition.blogspot.com)

The sphere of consumption is the most vibrant sphere of any economy. Consumption  is the sphere of expenditure or the marketplace where the several buyers interact with the vendors. The sphere of consumption represents the outcome of the production process. For the purposes of this small piece I am focusing on the outcome of the production process in capitalism. Capitalist production revolves around the few that control the means of production including the wages/paid labour time handed to the working class majority that produces surplus value/unpaid labour in the production of various commodities. Surplus value becomes the basis to measure levels of productivity/output within a particular space/ time and profit for the capitalist class. An increase in the rate of surplus value means that productivity levels are high because with the aid of raw materials and machinery the working class can produce a particular commodity in a shorter time than was previously socially acceptable. The profit generated is on the basis that the capitalist claims some of the workers product when it is sold for a particular price in the sphere of consumption. Many factors can influence price such as monopoly over a particular product, increased competition, unheralded disasters that reduce output and events that allow for a season of plenty, high demand or low demand, high levels of supply or low levels of supply etc.  Price is also affected by where things are produced and so if it takes a longer time to be produced in a particular area and a longer time to get it to market than in a more fertile/productive area and a place closer to the market, then the price will be higher in the former. Price is important because it affects the sphere of consumption or how goods are consumed or how capital is realized. Consumption has a twofold function: elements can be consumed productively or they can be consumed in a perishable manner i.e. once it’s consumed it can no longer be reclaimed. When you consume productively you utilize elements, such as the elements of nature or raw materials to create new products. In the capitalist sphere there is the utilization of semi finished products or machinery in the production process. All of the elements are consumed to produce a particular commodity for even the machinery depreciates once it is in  use which means it is being used up.  Economies that are growing focus on consuming productively whereas poorer countries or those enjoying small to negative growth focus on perishable consumption without the  significant balancing element of the other side, consuming productively. 

              

  Consumption is a necessary element of our daily lives. A lot of us have dual functions in this sphere where we consume productively as workers in the production process, or in delivering on services that facilitate the production process, in some form or the other, and in perishable consumption where we engage, with our wages, with the various vendors in the marketplace. From the perishable side we consume  as a means of sustenance so that we can stay alive and secure our bodily functions or we can consume excessively in order to promote a certain lifestyle. Excess consumption beyond what you normally earn is known as debt. You buy things you do not necessarily need. Excess consumption generates the commodity fetish for when someone’s income begins to rise it no longer corresponds with the necessary daily needs. Those individuals move from the kingdom of necessity to the kingdom of freedom. Commodities assume a place in our minds as natural extensions of ourselves although the commodity itself is just an ordinary thing. We come to view commodities in the sphere of consumption as a reflection of our social relations. For instance if a man can  afford to buy ten quality cars  as opposed to the man that can buy one it is clear that the former must have some more social standing in the capitalist system as opposed to the latter. Women will, generally, tend to prefer the man with 10 cars because of the security provided by his livelihood whereas the man with one car may have just enough to get by and he will find a good wife to settle down, peaceably, with especially as she too can buy a car for herself. They may settle down in a house and start a family and that will be the end of his story as his money becomes tied up in that particular family. He will, however, be unable to manage several women if he chooses to play the field or to date the high income celebrity type female, career type and business woman type that have a high standard of living. Some women will tell you that as long as he loves  and treats her well she has no care for the material because love is all she needs. She starts to sing a different tune when the man cannot even provide for himself. The reality eventually sobers her up.

  The commodity fetish is a term developed by Karl Marx. According to him the commodity fetish

‘ is nothing but the definite social relation between men themselves which assumes here, for them, the fantastic form of a relation between things [which are the products of labour]. In order, therefore, to find an analogy we must take flight into the misty realm of religion. There the products of the human brain appear as autonomous figures endowed with a life of their own, which enter into relations both with each other and with the human race. So it is in the world of commodities with the product of men’s hands. I call this the fetishism which attaches itself to the products of labour as soon as they are produced as commodities, and is therefore inseparable from the production of commodities.’ (Marx capital vol. 1, 165)

The capitalists produce commodities and for them to continue to be capitalists, that accumulate this high level of savings in the form of profit for the purpose of reinvestment or for expenditure, there must be consumers. Every commodity must have a use value or be perceived to have a use value. If not it cannot be exchanged in the market for money. This is how capital realizes itself. The capitalists bombard you with advertizing and propaganda materials so that you will buy their product. They hijack the media to promote their product. The developed capitalist firms almost try to make it seem as if they are an intrinsic part of your very being. This is where the celebrities or the petty bourgeois lap dogs are so important. We identify with them on the basis that they inspire us on a social level and so the capitalists utilize these figures to convince you to buy a particular product. As the perishable consumer you convince yourself to buy it on the basis that this celebrity endorses the product particularly as this celebrity is one of your favourites. On this basis the commodity assumes some measure of mysticism in your mind although it has no intrinsic use value for your being. The endorsement deals for these celebrities are enormous in some cases. It eventually becomes an even harder sell to those without the means to buy the product and so they focus on the commodity as a socially acceptable product.

When a product becomes socially acceptable individuals feel they must acquire it at any cost because this would mean that you are conforming to the demands of society. If you do not acquire this particular product you are seen as a social outcast in some spheres. You are convinced to conform because the model phone you had, for instance, is said to be no good or outdated and that the new model enhances your experience 10 fold in comparison. In your mind you believe that you should give up on this model and move on even if this new commodity is twice the cost. The amount of commodities that the petty bourgeois and billionaire class acquire (the house, the cars, the fancy clothing, fancy gadgets which are all high quality) becomes inspiration to the average working class man or average peasant to climb the ranks in society because in his or her mind the more quality products you can consume is a sign that you will become a major player in society. This, therefore, has many political implications. In the average mind the petty bourgeois and billionaire class that consume all these commodities must have done something to acquire them and it must mean that they were very successful in a particular sphere. This success would have made them a celebrity or put them in a position  to have command over a portion of the working class in the production process which produces all these commodities for sale in the market. It boils down to wealth being generated in the production process for whatever you produce will determine how much commodities you can consume. Even famous athletes and artistes, who are the embodiment of excess consumption because of their petty bourgeois status, have to perform some significant feat in the social sphere that will attract sufficient attention. If a particular athlete or artiste has a significant impact in the social sphere it is due to their high level of skill and dominance in the field. This would obviously make them significant individuals in that sphere and so the capitalists will be eager to latch on so that these individuals can convince members in the market place to buy a particular product. The higher the skill in these fields the more you can command in terms of earnings.

I cannot get into a discussion on the qualitative aspect of goods vs. mere quantity. I will say that when something is produced in abundance it is good for the consumptive sphere because it encourages the more rapid realization of capital. When the goods are too pricey it means only a few can afford them and these few are the ones that command some high level of income although in the long run capital would like to drive down the costs of production in order to reach almost every consumer in the market.

               

  The political implications of the commodity fetish has several negatives. It produces a particular type of so called criminal class that seek to acquire goods by theft. It is acknowledged by these individuals that these commodities can be exchanged for money or be utilized for a particular purpose. People start to engage in services or activities that are considered illegal. The prostitutes market themselves as sex providers (they are commoditized as a result) there is the production of contraband for sale etc. No matter how illegal once there are people willing to consume  there will be people willing to produce.  There are other negative instances.When you step on a man’s shoes, for instance, and soil it or cause great damage he will be very upset and in some cases will want to return the favour by causing you great bodily harm. In Jamaica there was a case where a man killed a boy in a taxi because the taxi driver bumped his BMW x6. It goes like this: After the taxi driver bumped him ( i mean the car) the savage took out his firearm and fired several shots at the taxi killing the schoolboy who was a mere passenger. A savage event like this could have only occurred because of the commodity fetish where the man saw the vehicle as an extension of himself although it is just a car. A quality car, well made, but still a car.

               

  One notable feature of the consumption sphere under capital is it’s reflection of the increased valorization of capital. Capitalism is the most productive mode of economic production in history. No other system has been able to produce at such a high level. There are some poor developing capitalist countries, today, that are probably as rich as the Roman Empire. Well maybe not as rich as the whole empire but Rome would not have been able to subdue even Jamaica with its military might. The wealth of a nation is the amount of commodities produced in its borders. Rome would have to bow down to the US who could have scooped it up  as its fiefdom no matter how grand its place in history. This is the extent that capitalism has produced where even mighty empires of the past look poor and destitute. For capitalism to produce at such high levels there must be consumers in the market to match this. You can see the development of the consumption sphere alongside capitalist production in the significant  amount of obese people in the West; you see it in the sewage waste  after people offload on the toilets; you see it in garbage disposal and the rise of the great dumps. These great dumps could only have taken place under the system of capitalism. You also see it with the proliferation of motor vehicles on the roads, the amount of technological gadgets, the amount of people addicted to drugs (legal and illegal), the craze that comes with holidays such as christmas and thanksgiving in America, the great supermarkets, shopping malls and retail and wholesale chains (the great distributors) where a lot of people do their shopping. All these elements are testament not only to the increased rate of base, perishable consumption but the extent of production.  Like I said before one function of consumption is productive consumption. So when you see some of these people walking around with their technological gadgets they could actually be using them to improve their productive output. We saw this with the rise of Blackberry however when these smartphones enter into the base consumption sphere a lot of people walking around with Blackberries, iphones and Samsung phones are using it to send casual messages/make calls to friends on their various social networks or they are browsing the internet in search of gossip or they are playing games.  It does not increase output from a productive sense but increases the rate of perishable consumption. Capitalism has therefore created a group of individuals that know how to consume at a high level which does not affect output. These people become spoiled with their riches and they become dissolute characters. In the old days excess consumption would only be limited to royalty, nobility or the  chiefs that appropriated most of the surplus product however under capital most people are able to engage in excess consumption. It is no longer a privilege and the so called criminals will tell you. The members of the brutalized section of the working class must consume simply to stay alive; it is a matter of survival and it only becomes distorted when you go up the social ladder to people that are earning way beyond what is necessary to keep them alive.

There is also the wonder of debt that induces the false consciousness associated with the commodity fetish.  Credit/debt is one of the great levers in the sphere of consumption and allows individuals or corporations to consume things they would not be able to pay for on an immediate basis. When credit is used for productive consumption in capitalism then it allows for the various industries to continue production unhindered by delays that would naturally occur if immediate payment was necessary. The Lords of capital, the bankers and the great investors have access to this form of credit. The various stock exchanges in the West and in Japan are a testament to this issuance of credit which helps to fuel production. On an individual level the issuance of credit is now encouraged. In the past the working class had to save in order to be guaranteed  any form of expenditure whereas now they can get loans in order to fuel their consumption habits. Loans are offered to students, to people who wish to pay for cars and houses, and for the purpose of advances on any form of expenditure. The important thing is that you have to be a producer and so you should be working or be engaged in some activity that generates an income for you to be considered. In another instance you can mortgage your house, which is a significant asset, in order to fuel consumption.  There is nothing wrong unless you can pay it back. The interest is merely profit for the money lender. The negative aspect is when you cannot afford to pay it back and it becomes evident that you were walking on water. This leads to a great collapse for both individuals and companies because their level of production was not in line with what they were borrowing. The fall of  Eike Batista from Brazil is one glaring example where his fortune plummeted to US$200 million  from a high of US$35 billion. In the 2008/9 recession people were forced to foreclose on their houses or abandon them outright as they were scooped up by the Banks that began the mess in the first place. What drove the individuals in 2008 was the allure created by the banks who promised them easy money/mortgages in order to pay for their houses. This fuelled the commodity fetish and real estate prices soared while, in reality, incomes remained at the same level. Eike Batisita is not alone for throughout history the most spectacular falls from grace were due to excessive consumption and not enough income. Individuals become so mired in debt that they have to file for bankruptcy as they watch their fortunes plummet. In the old days bad debt could land you in jail. Eike batisita is not alone for we see this among the aristocratic classes that used to live like hogs on debt yet their estates did not produce sufficiently to cover the principal and interest.  The West India interest in England, during the growth of the African slave trade and the development of Caribbean slave societies, lived lavishly on debt on the basis of the income from their estates in the British Caribbean. There are a lot of examples of such excessive consumption that leads to the downfall of men and nations ( the reparations to be paid by Weimar Germany following World War 1).

Lastly, in this brief discussion, there must be some mention of the role of money in the sphere of consumption. Money has two primary functions under capital. Firstly it is a means of exchange, being the universal equivalent of every commodity produced, nationally and internationally. Every commodity must be exchanged for money unless you can develop a modern system of barter where there are relative values that can be exchanged according to their relation with each other. 2 lbs sugar=3 lbs of rice etc. This should only happen in poorer countries without a developed capitalist base. Secondly, money is utilized as capital. Because money is the universal form of exchange it represents the starting point for the capitalist process of production. In order to enter business you need money capital to invest in commodities as raw materials, machinery and infrastructure, and lastly wages for the workforce. I am not interested where the money comes from at this point because that is for another discussion. It can be acquired illegally, it can be acquired by loans from the banks or other forms of money lending, it can be acquired by saving what you have earned from existing profits or wages. I am sure there are other ways which I will not touch on here. When you invest the money in raw materials, machinery etc you expect to emerge from the other side with a profit after your goods are sold in the market. The workers hand you surplus value/unpaid labour time and so you immediately have claims to the amount of commodities produced. This surplus value becomes the basis for your profit. Anyways your money is returned to you in the form of the investment you put in as well as the profit or extra dollars. It is on the basis of surplus value handed to you by the workers because, as a capitalist, you do not engage in the actual production process you merely set it in motion.

This massive surplus accumulated by the production sphere finds itself in the money form stored away at the banks, on the stock exchange, government debt, taxes  etc in order to increase production. Your capital must be realized in the sphere of consumption so that it will turnover and so the distributors in the form of the wholesale and retail trade confront the buyers with goods that are exchanged for money. Money becomes important in the consumptive sphere because it is the universal equivalent and people eventually realize that  money can be exchanged for anything as long as it is commoditized. It is the drive to attain money that fuels the consumptive sphere as much as it fuels production. The sphere of base consumption and productive consumption seek to acquire money at any costs when capital realizes itself continuously. This is also apparent when the commodity fetish sinks in where you feel you must buy all these products even the ones that are not necessary. Capital in its quest for profit  tends to overproduce to the point where goods remain unsold and some capitalist firms are unable to realize their capital in the form of sale and purchase. This is why  some supermarkets  give you an offer where you buy three and get one free. This is a clear sign that a particular capitalist firm has over produced and the sphere of consumption cannot realize its value through a purchase. This results in a devaluation of capital hence why you get one free if you buy three. It is a sign that things are slowing down or have  stagnated. Money becomes a burden when the demand for a product is so high that the price increases dramatically because the supply is inadequate or because the conditions of production are not favourable for the equilibrium for sale and purchase which constitutes the realization of capital. The price becomes too high so that people are unable to spend and a devaluation sets in. Everyday you hear them quote the price of oil on the mercantile exchange and that should give you a clue. It is a good thing for capital when the price is high and it seems so bad when the price drops. This is the sphere of consumption at work although there are other issues that have to be factored in such as the cartels that deliberately increase the price in order to be assured of a certain profit. The oil price is significant because of the costs of production in the consumptive sphere. If the cost to produce is high then the price must be correspondingly high although in a pure form of capital the price of oil should go down as productive processes improve hence why you have shale  etc. The high price of raw materials becomes a burden on the two classes of consumers (Inflation) and this is not conditioned primarily by supply and demand but the conditions under which goods are produced. If a price gets too high it is a sign that some aspect of capital is exhausting itself and a new mode of production is inevitable or there will be a collapse of the old system. This is why Japan, the US and the EU have brought China before  the WTO so that they can trade more of their raw materials that are used in the creation of smartphones, tablets etc.

This ends my brief discussion on the sphere of consumption. I welcome any comment and criticisms. WALL-E is a good film on this subject