I want to know what disqualifies chicken farmers as reasonable example of economic activity. Eating isn't marginal; i'ts something everybody does that has economic consequences.
Hmm, my apologies. I thought you were just being funny.
I agree, eating is not marginal. But the bulk of the food we buy no longer comes from the small chicken farmers of the world (think of that as a metaphor, obviously) but from large corporate agribusiness concerns, some with oligolopistic market control at the various stages of food production, packaging, and marketing. I forget the numbers, but if we bought our eggs directly from the chicken farmer they would cost something like a 20th of what we actually pay for them.
Caution: I'm not arguing for a return to an economy of small farmers. I'm not eager to make the Saturday grocery trip a two day venture into the hinterlands to buy eggs at one stop, some meats at another, vegetables at still another, etc. I'm simply arguing that metaphor doesn't work. I could also argue, if I were ready to spend a bit of time doing so, that the chicken farmer metaphor is an ideological blinder. At best, since a blinder permits you to actually see forward. Hmm, it's more like permitting you to see something that doesn't exist so you won't see what exists. |
