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The Limits of Hipster Capitalism
Last year, my wife and I went to the New Hampshire Crafts Fair. We bought a couple of small things, but mostly spent our time ogling hand-crafted products — particularly wooden tables — that were both beautiful and well outside our budget.
Though most of the craftsmen were old boomers, there were a few our age. One in particular was a bladesmith who had quit a financial services job in Boston to turn his hobby of knife-making into a full-time business. Zack now forges his own metal and handcrafts the blades and handles himself. I’m no expert in knives, but the quality was clearly amazing: perfectly balanced, razor sharp. But, just as we had to pass on the handcrafted furniture for now, I had to resign myself to sticking with my CRKT knives for the time being — and praying that Zack is successful enough to be in business when I can afford his work.
Jonas Blade & Metalworks’s Wild Feather Bowie
I had this in mind while reading Elizabeth Nolan Brown’s fascinating article, “Rise of the Hipster Capitalist” in the October issue of Reason. Brown’s contention is that the Millennial generation is far more entrepreneurial, business savvy, and pro-capitalism than the media lets on, though they tend to favor small-scale, artisanal, locally-sourced businesses over impersonal corporate behemoths. In other words, they follow paths much like Zack:
The hipster mixes hippie ethics and yuppie consumer preferences, communal attitudes and capitalist practices. Unlike prior generational stand-ins — from flappers to beats, punks to slackers — hipsters aren’t rebelling against their parents or prior generations; they’re mixing and matching the best of what came before and abandoning the baggage that doesn’t interest them.
The hipster ideal today is neither a commune nor a life of rugged individualism. It’s the small, socially conscious business. Millennials are obliterating divisions between corporate and bohemian values, between old and new employment models —they’re not the first to do this, but they are doing it in their own way. Armed with ample self-confidence but hobbled by stagnant prospects, millennials may be uniquely poised to excel in an evolving economy where the freelance countercultural capitalist becomes the new gold standard…
In the Buzz Marketing Group/Young Entrepreneurs Council survey, 33 percent of the 18- to 29-year-old respondents had a side business. (This included activities like tutoring and selling stuff on eBay.) Platforms such as Etsy, an online emporium for handmade goods, and the ridesharing service Uber put self-employment, of a sort, within millions of millennials’ reach. Much is made of how the new “sharing economy” disrupts old business models and empowers consumers, but these businesses have a transformative effect for workers, too.
It’s a fascinating read, and well worth your time. As someone who goes to the New Hampshire Crafts Fair and blows his spending money at the independent wine, beer, and cheese shop in my office’s lobby, I finished the piece with an optimistic smile on my face. But there’s a problem with Hipster Capitalism.
Of the many forces that have led to our prosperity, the least appreciated has been soulless, impersonal, far-away, semi-automated mass production that has driven prices down to such spectacularly low levels. This not only gives people more spending power, but vastly expands the kinds of products and services available to the poor. Just as the early industrial revolution made metal goods and manufactured textiles affordable to nearly everyone, so has it turned the personal computer into something that costs a weeks’ wages and fits into your pocket. And while things are always changing, the virtues of economies of scale have been proven and larger companies still employee the majority of Americans.
Hipster Capitalism not only fails to get this, but actively denigrates the practices that make it possible. Mass production, big corporations, and impersonal trade may not be lovable, but they’re the source of much of what’s made us prosperous and raised the standards of living worldwide. In contrast, artisanal products are — by their very nature — produced in small quantities and are more expensive than their manufactured counterparts.
Small companies and hand-crafted goods are wonderful — and we may have come to under-appreciate them relative to cheaper, mass-produced options. But those less lovable ways of making a living provide necessary, important work that Millennials should applaud, if not embrace.
Published in General
The logical implications of “you should buy everything from local vendors and artisnal producers” and “Hey Pepsi is good too” are vastly different.
Look the problem isn’t that these people exist, but rather the idea as put forward in the original article, that an entire generation, in this cast the millennial, will succeed by following their hearts and eschewing soulless capitalism for putting birds on things.
Mass-production printing has been greatly impacted by desktop publishing, home printing, and the Internet. Not made obsolete, of course, but greatly impacted.
I suspect 3-D printing will have a similar effect.
(Also, there’s still a pretty big market for horsewhips. In fact, I once read that there are more horsewhips sold today than in the decade prior to the invention of the automobile, partially because increased wealth means increased recreational riding, but also because horsewhips have other … um … uses …. )
I disagree. It makes total sense to me that people who make their living selling locally-manufactured artisanal goods would promote the idea that locally-manufactured artisanal goods are superior, just as it makes sense to me that Coca-Cola (a luxury good if ever there was one) wouldn’t promote the consumption of tap water (a necessity for human life).
As long as promotion doesn’t cross the line into coercion, I have no problem with it whatsover.
I’m not talking about whether their actions are wrong or not from a legal or moral perspective. But from an economic perspective if you followed their advice we would regress to the 18th century. Hardly progress.
And that’s just it: The successful ones do not compete in most markets. They choose which markets in which to compete based on the consumer preferences of those markets.
Few producers of luxury goods compete in “most” markets. They compete in the luxury markets, which pretty much by definition excludes the majority.
The exception are producers of low per-unit-cost luxury goods, like Coca-Cola, or Wrigley, or Hershey, or media producers.
If I followed their advice I’d be just fine. I can afford it, and “we” would hardly notice any wider economic effect from my personal shopping choice.
If everybody followed their advice, in that case I agree that “we” would regress. That’s precisely why I would oppose any attempt to impose their philosophy by coercion.
The pronoun game is important.
Congratulations?
I’d like to thank the Academy …
I have become aware of the quality that smaller, hungrier companies seems to represent. If they do represent better quality I feel better about paying a dollar more.
Eh gads! Am I becoming a liberal?
No, just a free marketer with a different set of values. What makes the free market so great is that you can buy high-end razors and my husband and I can be subscribed to the razor-blade-of-the-month club.
Isn’t choice beautiful?
I bought a safety razor from China via ebay for less than $4 (shipping included), and I buy Wilkinson Sword blades at the drug store. I do spend a bit more for the good, Italian-made shaving soap though. It tingles!
I wonder what the artisans think about all the hoops they have to jump through in order to sell their products. Business license, tax laws, environmental regulations, OSHA regulations,food-safety regulations if they sell edibles, accounting rules, etc… Incorporate? Sole proprietor? LLC?
As you might expect, I insist on quality with comfort shoes. My shoe wardrobe was $3K retail. Luckily I get 40 – 65% off working at the store. Pretty much anything else is a game of “how cheap can I go and not be a ragamuffin?”
A few things about these art fairs.
They’re an outlet for creatives who are “job locked”, whatever that means. They get joy out of making/creating/painting things and maybe make a little money at it. Some are very good, have websites and facebook, take orders and make more money. I know this because my sister does this. If she committed to it full time she probably would make upwards of $100k a year. Not a bad gig.
For me as an industrial designer, I enjoy going to my sister’s and other’s art shows. These shows are part of what is happening “on the street”. It’s here where trends in design, fashion and color start. Savvy marketing people know this and track trends to help predict into the future.
Lastly, if you’re in the right location these creators may catch the eye of a buyer or someone who owns a manufacturing facility that is looking to expand their product line or venture out with an artisnal line.
And just wait until 3D printing really comes on full force. They are inexpensive and will give these creators easier access into mass production of sorts.
From my very cursory, non-expert readings, many (note I didn’t write “the majority”, because I have no evidence to back that up) think such regulatory overreach shouldn’t apply to them. That stuff’s for evil polluting corporate profit-mongers.
Raw milk, backyard chicken coops, and marijuana cultivation should be totally unregulated … unless it’s a “corporation” doing it “for profit”. Then it should be prohibited.
I buy my running shoes at Winners (Canadian version of TJ Maxx) and the last couple of pairs of dress shoes I got cheap from Hong Kong via eBay. The label says they were made in Italy, but I wouldn’t bet the farm on that.
I have no problem with cheap shoes.
Personally I’m happy to see this. There’s all kinds of things that can be nitpicked about both the article and the hipster capitalists, but it’s a heck of a lot better than seeing them sit around waiting for a dole check!
My recommendation?
Ask the Institute for Justice. They do heroic work fighting for the economic liberties of small businesses. And they manage to do it with a fair amount of style. Not bad for a bunch of libertarian legal geeks.
HEY!? Artisanal light bulbs are our future. We don’t need any big corporations to lead us through the 21st century! (c.f. Portlandia)
I rather think it’s the reverse. When, exactly, did the Boomers or Gen X’ers experience scarcity? Was it when the government was so obsessed over employment, it pushed inflation over 10%? Or perhaps it was when the government realized inflation wasn’t working and ran large deficits in the 80s instead? Exactly what sacrifices did older generations make growing up that Millennial have not? Please, be specific.
Impersonal market forces always existed, but capitalism still didn’t always exist.
Thats the problem: capitalism is a socially constructed institution. If you reject it, you can destroy it. Venezuela seems to have done it quite easily. That doesn’t imply that the market forces don’t still apply; they obviously do in Venezuela, but capitalism itself can be “rejected”.
So these hipsters can reject capitalism. Seems to me it’s what they’re doing. Now, I doubt they have the brain cells to formulate their thought process in a way as to understand what capitalism is or isn’t. But that’s not important.
PS: This isn’t about “doing what you love”, or “art” or “making a niche product” etc. This is essentially a rejection of “modernity” and of the economic forces which have created the modern world.
Of course, it’s just a juvenile fad. Hipsters are, after all, kidults.
You didn’t mention if Zack has dependent children.
There’s a documentary out there about the time they fought the invading Soviet and Nicaraguan Armies in a small town in Colorado. Can’t remember what it was called now…
Seriously though, I can’t think there’s a more narcissistic juvenile generation than the one hipsters belong to (whatever it’s called). It’s nauseating.
You said, though,
The only mechanism you posed for their rejection of capitalism was their rejection of impersonal market forces in favor of something that sounded nicer. By that mechanism, if they can’t reject these impersonal market forces, how can they reject capitalism?
Your generation? I recall you saying you’re young.
This. This is the right approach.
We should not be criticizing these people, we should be recruiting them. We should applaud their entrepreneurial spirit, then tell them conservatives want to remove red tape that stands in their way. We should explain to them the concept of regulatory capture, the fact that regulations are being written by corporate lobbyists to stack the deck in favor of the large corporations — and against them.
Yeah, my generation. Unfortunately.
Hipsters tend to be older, akschully. They’re heavily represented by educated folk in their 30s who are just now having kids. Think Portlandia.
The true young’ns aren’t educated enough to be hip. They’re still too busy getting drunk and going to Spring Break.
Well, maybe I wasn’t clear in what I meant to say. All market forces are impersonal, so that’s not the key word there. People can still “reject” them, even if they are always there and a constant. Meaning, people can still reject the institutions which are designed to take advantage of such “impersonal market forces” to generate the most “social good”; i.e. the efficient allocation of scarce resources.
E.g., Adam Smith didn’t write his book as a description of what happens in an economy. He wrote it as a prescription of what sort of institutions go against the always present market forces, to lead to less efficient outcomes. He was specifically writing against mercantilism, in that instance.
That’s who I’m talking about. Late 20s to mid 30s types.
Don’t even get me started on the even younger generation!