Publish : 04 Jan 2022, 12:16 AMUpdate : 04 Jan 2022, 02:28 AM
Many events around two global celebrations, Christmas and the New Year, were cancelled last week because of the rising threat of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Thousands of domestic and international flights got cancelled, and many people were stranded. Additionally, lockdowns of various scope forced people to stay home, receive the least number of guests, and celebrate in a toned-down manner.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019, we have been experiencing cancellations of spectacular events where usually thousands of people simultaneously attend, celebrate, and enjoy. To comprehend the nature and cost of these cancellations, we must first trace the changes in our consumption habits.
These days, we have largely become used to instantaneous consumption. If we observe our everyday lives from an objective viewpoint, it becomes evident that we tend to get rid of “functional” products once they are no longer of use. Of course, many of us still have some prized possessions that we’ve inherited from our ancestors, like a piece of furniture or clothing or even jewellery. But today, in our fast-paced modernity, we keep discarding products as soon as the next version comes out, leaving us little scope to pass on anything to our future generations.
We keep celebrating local, regional, and global events. For instance, we celebrate Pohela Boishakh, Pohela Falgun, Choitro Shankranti, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day, Christmas, Halloween, Eid, Puja, International Mother Language Day, Victory Day -- the list goes on. All these events, no doubt, have cultural, religious, or political significance. Nonetheless, large corporations, small and medium enterprises, and street vendors are dependent on such occasions for businesses.
A walk in Shahbag during the Pohela Boishakh or Pohela Falgun reveals the gigantic nature of consumer practices. Just take a look at TV commercials (for everyday products) and you can clearly identify how they change in accordance to the “spectacular event” of the season in order to capture our attention and to get us to buy more.
To keep this demand for commodities fulfilled, products are manufactured in a quick pace. For example, the clothing industry introduces huge new collections every few days -- ahead of celebrations and festivals. New versions of the products keep arriving, and we, as consumers, keep buying. As a result, turnover time in production-distribution-consumption has reduced significantly.
In a way, this fast-paced consumption is “good” for the economy -- it runs the engine of our consumption-driven economy. Economic activity has increased manifold, and global wealth has grown to enormous proportions -- measured by the GDP. However, global wealth is inequitably distributed, and we have grave inequality in the society -- which is a crucial issue and needs more space and time to discuss.
The second key area of our consumption can be termed “experiential consumption.” This means certain experiences are sold as commodities to us. For example, the tourism and service industries are all based on providing unique experiences. Similarly, sporting events, cinemas, and other cultural events are designed for mass consumption and aim to offer unique experiences to consumers.
The introduction of such “new” consumable products has shifted the production of commodities out of the factory wall. The experiences of travelling to a tourist destination or watching a cricket match in the stadium could not be produced in a factory. The changes in our consumption have ensured the circulation of money at a much greater speed. We are always on the move, always spending money, and all the while the economy gets bigger.
But once the circulation of money is put to a halt due to the cancellation of spectacular events worldwide -- it causes devastating ripple effects on our economy.
This is because there is an inherent paradox in our capitalistic economic system. The logic of capitalism is simple: The owner of capital invests money to buy raw materials, hires labour, sets up a work process in the industry and produces commodities for people. However, once sold in the market, the money that a capitalist gets is higher than what he had invested in making the goods. This surplus is the profit -- a share of which is reinvested to produce even more or expensive products, to profit more.
So, in this system, there is no going back, the capitalist must keep producing, selling, making a profit, and the cycle continues. All the raw materials, products, or labour are valuable only when in circulation in this system. So the paradox becomes visible when the circulation is stopped -- then everything of value becomes a liability. David Harvey has termed this feature of commodities, means of production, and/or money as “anti-value.”
Anything becomes a liability when there is no demand for it, and someone always has a tonne of it. Once the cancellation of spectacular events is underway, we have a chain reaction. For instance, thousands of flight cancellations meant that the airlines would lose money and that many shops, restaurants, and public events would not have customers. Ultimately, the circulation of money and commodities stopped to a certain extent.
This static condition is problematic because once the companies incur losses, they will not be able to pay their employees. As a result, many workers will lose jobs and, eventually, their decreasing purchasing power will hurt the commodity producers in turn. Commodities will lose value as there will be fewer customers. In this circle of reaction, financial prospects for many will thus fall into a downward spiral.
While many anti-capitalist scholars have repeatedly discussed and shown the eminent tragedies in our economic system, unfortunately, we have not yet successfully reverted. Nonetheless, we must keep trying to make this world more equitable and avoid the inevitable dangers of current economic reasoning.
Mohammad Tareq Hasan is an anthropologist and teaches at the University of Dhaka. Currently, he works as a research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden University, the Netherlands.
An end to the cycle?
Many events around two global celebrations, Christmas and the New Year, were cancelled last week because of the rising threat of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus. Thousands of domestic and international flights got cancelled, and many people were stranded. Additionally, lockdowns of various scope forced people to stay home, receive the least number of guests, and celebrate in a toned-down manner.
Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic in late 2019, we have been experiencing cancellations of spectacular events where usually thousands of people simultaneously attend, celebrate, and enjoy. To comprehend the nature and cost of these cancellations, we must first trace the changes in our consumption habits.
These days, we have largely become used to instantaneous consumption. If we observe our everyday lives from an objective viewpoint, it becomes evident that we tend to get rid of “functional” products once they are no longer of use. Of course, many of us still have some prized possessions that we’ve inherited from our ancestors, like a piece of furniture or clothing or even jewellery. But today, in our fast-paced modernity, we keep discarding products as soon as the next version comes out, leaving us little scope to pass on anything to our future generations.
We keep celebrating local, regional, and global events. For instance, we celebrate Pohela Boishakh, Pohela Falgun, Choitro Shankranti, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s and Father’s Day, Christmas, Halloween, Eid, Puja, International Mother Language Day, Victory Day -- the list goes on. All these events, no doubt, have cultural, religious, or political significance. Nonetheless, large corporations, small and medium enterprises, and street vendors are dependent on such occasions for businesses.
A walk in Shahbag during the Pohela Boishakh or Pohela Falgun reveals the gigantic nature of consumer practices. Just take a look at TV commercials (for everyday products) and you can clearly identify how they change in accordance to the “spectacular event” of the season in order to capture our attention and to get us to buy more.
To keep this demand for commodities fulfilled, products are manufactured in a quick pace. For example, the clothing industry introduces huge new collections every few days -- ahead of celebrations and festivals. New versions of the products keep arriving, and we, as consumers, keep buying. As a result, turnover time in production-distribution-consumption has reduced significantly.
In a way, this fast-paced consumption is “good” for the economy -- it runs the engine of our consumption-driven economy. Economic activity has increased manifold, and global wealth has grown to enormous proportions -- measured by the GDP. However, global wealth is inequitably distributed, and we have grave inequality in the society -- which is a crucial issue and needs more space and time to discuss.
The second key area of our consumption can be termed “experiential consumption.” This means certain experiences are sold as commodities to us. For example, the tourism and service industries are all based on providing unique experiences. Similarly, sporting events, cinemas, and other cultural events are designed for mass consumption and aim to offer unique experiences to consumers.
The introduction of such “new” consumable products has shifted the production of commodities out of the factory wall. The experiences of travelling to a tourist destination or watching a cricket match in the stadium could not be produced in a factory. The changes in our consumption have ensured the circulation of money at a much greater speed. We are always on the move, always spending money, and all the while the economy gets bigger.
But once the circulation of money is put to a halt due to the cancellation of spectacular events worldwide -- it causes devastating ripple effects on our economy.
This is because there is an inherent paradox in our capitalistic economic system. The logic of capitalism is simple: The owner of capital invests money to buy raw materials, hires labour, sets up a work process in the industry and produces commodities for people. However, once sold in the market, the money that a capitalist gets is higher than what he had invested in making the goods. This surplus is the profit -- a share of which is reinvested to produce even more or expensive products, to profit more.
So, in this system, there is no going back, the capitalist must keep producing, selling, making a profit, and the cycle continues. All the raw materials, products, or labour are valuable only when in circulation in this system. So the paradox becomes visible when the circulation is stopped -- then everything of value becomes a liability. David Harvey has termed this feature of commodities, means of production, and/or money as “anti-value.”
Anything becomes a liability when there is no demand for it, and someone always has a tonne of it. Once the cancellation of spectacular events is underway, we have a chain reaction. For instance, thousands of flight cancellations meant that the airlines would lose money and that many shops, restaurants, and public events would not have customers. Ultimately, the circulation of money and commodities stopped to a certain extent.
This static condition is problematic because once the companies incur losses, they will not be able to pay their employees. As a result, many workers will lose jobs and, eventually, their decreasing purchasing power will hurt the commodity producers in turn. Commodities will lose value as there will be fewer customers. In this circle of reaction, financial prospects for many will thus fall into a downward spiral.
While many anti-capitalist scholars have repeatedly discussed and shown the eminent tragedies in our economic system, unfortunately, we have not yet successfully reverted. Nonetheless, we must keep trying to make this world more equitable and avoid the inevitable dangers of current economic reasoning.
Mohammad Tareq Hasan is an anthropologist and teaches at the University of Dhaka. Currently, he works as a research fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS), Leiden University, the Netherlands.
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