Some years ago, I recommended that the Economics Department at UWO set up an Amazon.ca referral account, and put links to Amazon on all the course websites for students to order their texts directly. The students would be able to get books cheaper than at the University Bookstore, and the department would be able to raise some cash through referral commissions. I even volunteered to set everything up.
Alas, the recommendation was rejected, but not for the reason I expected. I figured that in an attempt to extract monopoly rents from the students, the university had/has some policy that doesn't allow such a circumventing of University Bookstore sales .
But no. The reason given was that doing so smacked of commercializing education, something perceived as a "no no" I guess.
I let it go. I was near retirement age and was tired of picky battles. And to be honest, I have no idea whether such a thing is even possible with Amazon (though I strongly suspect it is).
I was reminded of this event from my past when I read Don Boudreaux's wonderful post at Cafe Hayek yesterday on "Crass Commercialism". It is a terrific piece. Here are a few snippets:
Those activities that regularly get labeled as “crass” are those that appeal to the masses. Hollywood blockbusters are “crass”; indie movies are cool. Pop music is “crass”; John Cage’s music is cool. McDonald’s is “crass”; artisan cheesemakers are cool. Wal-Mart is “crass”; a boutique merchant selling hand-knitted sweaters is cool. Supermarkets are “crass”; farmers’ markets are cool. Shopping malls are “crass”; small stores tucked into basements along Bleecker Street are cool. Barnes & Noble and Amazon are “crass”; independent bookstores each specializing in only one genre of literature are cool. Home Depot is “crass”; a mom’n’pop hardware store is cool. DisneyWorld is “crass”; Iceland’s fjords are cool. American football is “crass”; soccer (in America) is cool. The suburbs are “crass”; Georgetown is cool. Budweiser is “crass”; Sierra Nevada brews are cool. White zinfandel from California is “crass”; rosés from Bandol are cool.
This list can be greatly extended, but you get the picture: whenever and wherever entrepreneurs and businesses adopt business models that appeal to large numbers of people, they are called “crass.” Far more appealing, apparently, are entrepreneurs and businesses that refuse to seek larger profits by catering to large numbers of people. Cool are the entrepreneurs and businesses that ignore the desires of the masses and concentrate their attentions on serving only a select handful of customers – as it happens, customers typically with above-average incomes. (Quite the opposite holds for politicians: when a politician adopts a populist political position, he or she is often hailed as a pioneering “Progressive.” Catering the masses politically is widely regarded to be commendable; catering to the masses commercially is widely regarded to be contemptible. Strange that.)
For this, Professor Boudreaux deserves honourary membership in the Philistine Liberation Organization.