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Entry: A Road Not Taken: Distributism Link: http://www.takimag.com/blogs/article/a_road_not_taken_distributism#19794 Post contents: At last: Some Real Conservatism on this website! And it has prompted some intelligent writebacks (except, of course, from the <i>Braunen</i>. I thank Mr. Z. And libertarians ought rejoice in Mr. Z’s non-coersive approach to Distributionism. What’s missing in our social order is real face-to-face debate, and debates that are really debates and not joint press conferences. Neil Postman observed that real debate was a common place event in the 19th C, and the Lincoln-Douglas debates were just an example of common practice. So I would welcome a debate between Thomas Woods (<i> The Church and the Market</i>, pp. 161-205) and Mr. Z. Some <i>ad oculos</i> observations from my own shopping: 1. Barnes and Nobles and Borders offers me a lot more variety and better service to a special interest niche (say, the polyphony of Josquin) than the Mom and Pop bookstores, and often at less cost. 2. Distributionism, Austrian School libertarianism, Whig central statist banks, the Fascist version of Corporatism, and Communism/Socialism/Syndicatism were one and all pre-Internet, and thus pre-Global Market systems. They were ideologies for the Industrial Age, when consumers consumed material things more than information (I follow Sakaiya here). The aforementioned economic ideologies also worked in the world of the Industrial Age’s class structure, and thus class struggles; Distributionism was clearly an appeal to the Petty Bourgeoisie, as Agrarianism is to the yeoman farmer. Our class structure is quite different today. But we are no longer living in the Industrial Age. Might not Amazon.com and its like put out of business both Mom and Pop Bookstore <i>and</i> Borders? Heck, If I can download the entire book from the publisher, who needs middlemen at all? Once again: the New Venetian Age is upon us, and our economics and class theory best get up to date. 3. I’m old enough to remember A&P;grocery stores, which I think were the last nationwide grocery chain. Almost all USA grocery stores today are regional chains, and the rest are Mom and Pop. Isn’t this enough? What is more, shop at Mom and Pop Green Grocer or Butcher in Rome, Mr. Z, and you’ll find they’re a lot more expensive. I think the economists call this “volume”. Without endorsing or opposing Distributionism, I would pose this dilemma: Is the conflict therefore between the family as independent and empowered economic unit and the same family’s wallet? 4. Downsizing is already taking place; the mega-corporation is being replaced by small firms. So “Nathan P Origer's” objections to Forrest, however true than may have been, are anachronistic and thus moot. Would that the Mega-State also go the way of all flesh! 5. The key point of the Austrian School is not being addressed here. All other economic ideologies, by and large, including Distributionism, are production/supply theories. But Menger taught that demand drives the market, not supply, and Böhm-Bawerk demonstrated that all production theories of interest don’t work, whereas the time-preference theory does. Or to put Austrian economics in four words: <b>THE CUSTOMER IS KING</b>, not the producer/wholesaler/retailer. Now I don’t know if this teaching is true. But it needs to be addressed. Sent at: 2008 05 10