Over a century ago, John Maynard Keynesan economist and critic of unregulated, unmanaged markets, pointed out the wonder that you could order the wonders of the world over the phone while lying in bed and have them delivered:
The resident of London could, by telephone, while sipping his morning tea in bed, order the various products of the whole earth, in such quantities as he deemed necessary, and reasonably expect that they would soon be delivered to his home…
That comes from Keynes’ book from 1919 The economic consequences of peaceand at the time Keynes described a fantastic privilege reserved for the richest of the rich, who could afford and buy on credit telephones and telephone calls from people they could not see and whom they could not see.
Keynes’s dream has come true for the poor and middle class in the 21st century, and not because of the interventionism that he and his intellectual descendants believed was necessary. Whatever you want, you can get it with a few thumb movements. With a little planning, you can automate much of your shopping through Amazon’s Subscribe and Save and similar services. All payment processing, ordering, etc. are automated and completed without having to pay much attention to it.
Paper towels? You can subscribe to them. Chocolate? Coffee? Shaving supplies? Subscription box services replenish you every month. People with higher incomes will have an easier time, but subscription boxes and subscription and savings services are widely available and largely affordable to just about everyone.
At this point someone is probably grinning and saying, “Great. My life has meaning now because I can have my groceries delivered.” If that’s you, you expect the market to do something it can’t do. The market can supply bananas and spring rolls. It can’t provide existential meaning, although you can support Amazon workers you think are being oppressed by buying more things from Amazon.
If Christopher Freiman pointed out on TwitterEven poor people today are richer than the Rockefellers, in every way that matters. If you can get a cheap digital wristwatch, who cares if Elon Musk can wear a Rolex on any wrist? Elon Musk’s net worth may be many times greater than mine, but even with a net worth of $200 billion, he can’t buy a smartphone and mobile service that is hundreds of thousands of times better than mine.
A little later in the passage quoted above, after describing the Londoner’s financial capabilities, Keynes continues:
But most important of all, he regarded this state of affairs as normal, certain, and permanent, except in the direction of further improvement, and any deviation from it as aberrant, scandalous, and avoidable. The projects and policies of militarism and imperialism, of racial and cultural rivalry, of monopolies, restrictions and exclusion, that would play the snake to this paradise, were little more than the entertainment of his newspaper and seemed to have virtually no influence. influence on the ordinary course of social and economic life, the internationalization of which was in practice almost complete.
If only this life of peace and prosperity were the reality for everyone, everywhere. However, there is good news: now that we have the Bourgeois deal and (ironically) reject coordinated Keynesian macroeconomic management, then it turns that way.
Art Carden is a Professor of Economics and Medical Properties Trust Fellow at Samford University.