Re: : Markets and Diversity

[Bill Lear <rael@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Monday, June 3, 2002 at 14:39:44 (+0000) Justin Schwartz writes:
>[Doug Henwood writes:]
>>Bourdieu argues in his book On Television
>><http://www.leftbusinessobserver.com/Why_TV_sucks.html> that
>>competition produces sameness, not diversity.
>>
>>Doug
>
>What's his reasoning? Or is it just an observation? I would expect it to
>depend on the circumstances. jks

It is also highly dependent upon what definition of "competition" one
uses, n'est-ce pas?

If by "competition", Bourdieu means modern Western state-supported
large- (very) and small- firm market mechanisms, that's one thing.  If
he means classic individualistic competition which drives prices to
approach marginal costs, that's entirely another thing.

With the latter, we would have zero diversity, since we'd all still be
living in caves.  With the former we would have a high degree of
phylogenic differentiation, but a large degree of sympatry (been
reading Gould's book, in his honor, you see:-).

Didn't Thomas Frank also remark somewhere that the United States
is a very dynamic society going nowhere?


Bill