Reflecting On Capitalism

A recent book explores our economic system. Was this forwarded to you? Subscribe to [this newsletter]( and to [our podcasts](. Having and Being Had --------------------------------------------------------------- by Irena Hwang My early 30s are turning out to be a delayed version of the period that many of my Marx-quoting, jaded high school peers went through in their late teens. I’m a bit late to discussions of concepts like consumerism and capitalism, and I engage in them now only with a fair bit of embarrassment about all the things that I don’t know. I recently found a friendly companion for my ruminations in Eula Biss. Her 2020 book, [Having and Being Had]( is a collection of essays Biss [says she wrote]( in an effort to capture the discomfort she felt first when she was economically insecure, and later when she had the means to acquire material goods. Before I tell you what this book is, let me tell you what it is not: it is not a data-driven look at the economy; it is not a treatise on economic and social theory; it is not a textbook, and it references economics terminology only loosely. Eula Biss (via Wikipedia Commons) Having and Being Had is a collection of brief and meditative essays that explore Biss’s questions about what it takes to have material things, what it means to have those things, and what, exactly, capitalism even is — to her, at least. The book grew out of Biss’s experience incurring what will be the largest amount of debt in most adult Americans’ lives: homeownership. Fixed rate, long-term mortgages were the product of progressive New Deal reforms intended to make property ownership accessible to more Americans. Yet the inevitable chain of consumption that results from buying a home (buying furniture, renovations, maintenance), as well as the modern labor practices that produce these consumer goods, gives Biss pause. Biss buys her home, writes about the things she thinks she wants to put in it, and relates how she feels uncomfortable with the whole situation. She explores what it means to choose to be indebted to an institution for 15 or 30 years, the labor that goes into scraping together the requisite capital for a down payment, and how the value and time we place in our work is transmuted into something of worth to others. Biss presents readers with the minutiae of her life — flat-pack furniture, Emily Dickinson poems, a fireplace — and then examines the systems and ideas that made these things possible. In Having and Being Had, Biss manages to sprinkle in some of social and economic theory’s greatest hits. David Graeber and his theories of consumption and the psychological harm of bullshit jobs make an appearance. So, too, do John Kenneth Galbraith’s theories on how an affluent society should give rise to a class of people who work for a sense of fulfillment, not money. And, of course, Karl Marx, with his mistrust of economic status as a means to power. While I welcomed these name-drops as a CliffsNotes version of everything I missed from skipping Intro to Econ in college (sorry, Dad), the parts I most enjoyed were Biss’s introspective examinations of words that I suspect I’m not the only one to have had only a shallow understanding of: Luxury. Consumer. Debt. It's a wide range of topics, and some Biss returns to again and again. Seven chapters are entitled "Art" (yes, really). Only one is entitled "Play." But a notable limitation — which Biss addresses in a note entitled “On the Whites” — is the white, cisgender, middle-class lens through which she and most of her subjects view the world. Having and Being Had welled up from Biss’s thoughts about homeownership, and she does briefly examine gentrification in her own neighborhood. However, if you are looking for an in-depth analysis of the legacy of redlining and other racist policies, this is definitely not the book to read. (A better source for that conversation might be Planet Money’s [recent episode]( about a book by Brookings Institution fellow Dr. Andre Perry). What this book does do is invite the reader to contemplate the socioeconomic contracts that dominate American life. It does so, however, free of the dogma, rhetoric and highly opinionated takes that seem to dominate most lay discussions about consumerism. Nothing makes me leave a party faster than someone holding forth on how to fix the U.S. economy with some one-dimensional conception of socialism or capitalism. Sure, theories provide different frameworks that help us examine our lives, our values and our material possessions. But most of the time, I'm just walking around wondering things like, What can I afford? What do I want to be able to afford? Who and what do I prioritize, and why? Many people might find the answers to these questions obvious. I do not. But Having and Being Had reassured me that I'm not the only one struggling with them. The book introduced me to the historical context and ideas that made the systems of American capitalism possible, and helped me start questioning those constructs. Finally, it helped me to learn that I’m not the only one trying to puzzle out capitalism at a relatively later age. As one of Planet Money’s resident economics wonks and usual writer of this newsletter (thanks, [Greg Rosalsky]( said when I pitched this piece: “Ask five people what the definition of capitalism is, and you’ll get 10 different answers.” Having and Being Had invites you to consider some of those answers — and then some. --------------------------------------------------------------- Newsletter continues after sponsor message --------------------------------------------------------------- On Our Podcasts --------------------------------------------------------------- About Your Extended Warranty — Calls about "extended auto warranties" blow up our phones over and over. But what are these robocalls actually offering? [Listen here]( How Jacob Loud's Land Was Lost — We look at the arcane laws that have cost Black landowners their property, and the lawyer who is trying to fix those laws. 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