Just to be clear -- Weber was making empirical observations about bureaucracy and efficiency, not normative endorsements of it. I think it was pretty clear he saw the logic of efficiency in his era's capitalism as, well....ambivalent at best. The "iron cage" of rationalization doesn't sound so comfy.
Phenomenal piece. One can define luxury in many ways: by price, scarcity, and so forth. The pinnacle and most basic principle of luxury is to have something that is one of a kind, or simply that which cannot be obtained by any known means.
This is a fantastic and thought-provoking analysis. I think the only thing that could improve this article is a clearer articulation of the value of degrowth at the beginning. The introduction explains all the ways our society has been organized around efficiency, then the essay pivots with "But there is value in the inefficiency," a thesis that isn't fully fleshed out before the analysis of the shifts happening.
The common axis here is control. And the point about dentists could use some substantiation; "I heard" is about as useful as "they say." For some, dentists as a commodity (which cuts against other points made here) is useful. For others, not so much. Probably depends on income level. Generally, making dental healthcare more available in the US is a good thing. And dental "networks" have been around for decades-back when there was a Sears, there were dental networks inside some Sears stores on the West Coast of the USA.
Just to be clear -- Weber was making empirical observations about bureaucracy and efficiency, not normative endorsements of it. I think it was pretty clear he saw the logic of efficiency in his era's capitalism as, well....ambivalent at best. The "iron cage" of rationalization doesn't sound so comfy.
Phenomenal piece. One can define luxury in many ways: by price, scarcity, and so forth. The pinnacle and most basic principle of luxury is to have something that is one of a kind, or simply that which cannot be obtained by any known means.
This is a fantastic and thought-provoking analysis. I think the only thing that could improve this article is a clearer articulation of the value of degrowth at the beginning. The introduction explains all the ways our society has been organized around efficiency, then the essay pivots with "But there is value in the inefficiency," a thesis that isn't fully fleshed out before the analysis of the shifts happening.
The common axis here is control. And the point about dentists could use some substantiation; "I heard" is about as useful as "they say." For some, dentists as a commodity (which cuts against other points made here) is useful. For others, not so much. Probably depends on income level. Generally, making dental healthcare more available in the US is a good thing. And dental "networks" have been around for decades-back when there was a Sears, there were dental networks inside some Sears stores on the West Coast of the USA.