Stef gave praise to the "The Customer Is Always Right" slogan in one of
his recent(?) podcasts. (I'm not sure, I wasn't really paying
attention to the filename on my MP3, it could have been an old one). I thought this was very interesting. I totally
understand why he brought it up, because he was trying to drive home
the message that products and services will never even come into being
if there is no demand for them, or if the ability to trade for them is
hampered (artificially by violence, or naturally by any number of
factors). However, I never found that phrase very satisfying,
because the existance of this entity called 'a customer' implies that
capital has some sort of special meanining, and gives the holder some sort of magic status; that they are somehow superior to
those who are trying to supply some good or service. I feel that
this attitude is totally artificial!
If I have a loaf of bread and you have a dollar, you are not inharently
superior to me. In fact, if I was the only one with a loaf of
bread and everyone in the world had exactly one dollar, I would be the
one who would have to be considered 'always right' because those who
have the dollars would have to vie to be the one who gets the
bread. Similarly, if I was the only one in the world who was
selling his newly minted car for three cents, then I would have every
right to demand an outrageous level of respect and worship from my
potential car buyers, or else I can simply reject them and move on to
the next person. (The 'soup nazi' effect)
This is a very important thing that I like to remember when I'm working
as an employee for a large company. I'm just as valuable to them
as they are to me, if not more so. The fact that they're the ones
with the capital, and I'm the one offering the service is a meaningless
and arbitrary distinction. They have to fight to get me so that I
don't try to work for their competitors, yet once capital starts
changing hands, my bosses have sometimes started treating me like I am
completly subjugated to them, and I should have no leaway to discuss my
own desires in the work environment, because they believe in their
minds that whoever has the money, is the one who has the power.
And from an economic standpoint, this isn't always true! Money
has its own value just like everything else.
P.S. It's quite possible that this 'Money is everything' attitude was
manufactured by the state, because of the illegalization/regulation of bartering.