

What it Means that an Hour’s Work Yields a Week’s Food - cwan
http://lifeboat.com/blog/2011/02/what-it-means-that-an-hour%E2%80%99s-work-yields-a-week%E2%80%99s-food-part-1-productivity

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bartonfink
What does this say about people's perception of quality, though? Sure, you can
buy cheap value-brand staples that are probably chock full of preservatives
and chemicals that drive down the cost of food on an industrial scale. You can
also buy furniture from Wal-Mart that's made compressed sawdust, a binding
agent and a thin coat of paint. Both purchases will be relatively cheap, but I
wouldn't expect anything more than minimal quality from either.

Over the last 10 years, I've seen a relative explosion of organic and locally-
grown food at mainstream grocery stores. I haven't lived in particularly
liberal areas, so I think it's safe to say that these are representative of a
growing trend of consumer consciousness. People seem to give a damn what their
money is really buying in a way that they didn't 20 years ago, for instance.
Simple economics suggests that labor will expand to fill this niche, and in
doing so, that expansion is going to run counter to the author's main point
that efficiency is inexorably shrinking the workforce.

I'm not saying this is wrong, but I'm curious what this niche market for
higher-quality, locally manufactured/grown goods means for the trend the
author is trying to forecast.

