Comments on: Food II: bad food

By: Andy

Andy — Wed, 25 May 2005 20:51:18 +0000

I am doing a research report on how bad junk food is for you and I need the name of your auther for this article but i searched and search and still could not find the authe. so pleas next time can you write the authers name.

By: Arul Sundaram

Arul Sundaram — Mon, 24 Jan 2005 18:14:21 +0000

Interesting stuff. I particularly like your post on fashion today. After having gone back to read your food posts, I feel as if you’ve sparked something. I’m not entirely certain of what the answer / model / framework is, but there is a clear trend that you are beginning to articulate.

Without having any data, I’d say that the results of this trend (in the food / restaurant specific) should be that middle of the road places are failing. The argument being, if I can’t have what I think is good food, I’ll just resort what I know is cheap, immediate food. This, I think, also applies to your post today on fashion.

What does this mean? Is it more “get big, get niche, or get out”? Is it a consequence of people being better informed? Is it an issue of too much choice (ref. to Barry Schwartz, “The Paradox of Choice”)? Is it – as you posted today – because people want to be more “vivid”? All of these seem as if they could be relevant parts to the answer.

By: Scott McArthur

Scott McArthur — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 12:08:21 +0000

There was a time when we would have hunted out the cognitive dissonance this sort of thing causes. But not anymore. I think we may be looking at a virtual consumption as a result of which people consume the knowledge and image of good food and the stuff and substance of bad food

You’ve hit on something. It reminds me somewhat of the marxist notion of false consciousness, but stripped of class content and turned into an existential phenomenon.
The virtual experience replaces the actual experience. This could be good or bad. It could be used to displace out negative impulses or deceive us into believing we are righteous when we are not.

I certainly think it is useful to think of modern democratic politics this way. People don’t do democracy anymore they experience it vicariously through their spokespeople, be it pundits, protestors or politicians.
In a world like this marketing takes on a greater and greater weight in “making the sale” to the voters. A broom is a broom, but I feel better about buying this one.
I think you could frame the DEM/GOP dicotimy this way.

By: Steven Horwitz

Steven Horwitz — Thu, 20 Jan 2005 11:26:31 +0000

From an economic perspective, this isn’t that odd. It may be that higher incomes have enabled us to indulge in the Martha Stewart fantasy and sometimes even live it out – we can afford to purchase the fine wines, fancy olive oils, and fresh exotic vegetables to make those slow cooked meals in our remodelled kitchens. At the same time, the “substitution effect” of the various pressures on our time pushes us to consume fast food, or even fast casual, on a more frequent basis.

In my own house, we tend to eat “fast” in various ways during the week, but indulge ourselves either eating out more fancy or cooking more slowly on the weekends, when we have the time.

Last note – your example of sushi a few posts back is an excellent one. I live in a town of 7000 in a rural county in NY state. We now have an Asian buffet with very good sushi. It’s both an economic and cultural phenomenon – costs are lower and people are more aware of sushi as an enjoyable meal. Smith had it right – the division of labor is indeed limited by the extent of the market, and that “extent” continues to grow as costs fall and cultures intermingle.

By: steve

steve — Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:10:53 +0000

The virtual (or surrogate) consumption hypothesis is fascinating. In its traditional form, it involves the non-rich and non-beautiful spending much time in contemplation of beautiful, affluent celebrities who have nothing to worry about but their indulgences. Lifestyles of the rich and famous. Now it’s down to decorating shows where middle class people get to see bland or ugly rooms transformed by heroic decorators, even as their own rooms remain in classic “before” condition.

The only caveat I would make is that while there probably is an increase in virtual consumption of the finer things, there also seems to be an increase in actual consumption of them. To follow your food example, one of the faster growing restaurant categories, “fast casual”, contains lots of chains that appear to be going for the high-end museum cafeteria experience.