Woe to Us and Our Poor Society

By Jake Tynan (2L)

It was not the first time I heard it. Or the second or third. Yet it stings every time. ‘Students’ says the professor, ‘you are the consumers and I will aim to fulfill your needs’. There is nothing wrong with the idea that the needs of students will shift to prevailing circumstances and the subject matter that is taught should move accordingly. I have problems with the use of market terms. It some how a word cheapens what we do here. We are not learning as understudies of brilliant individuals. We are purchasers of a product. Despite the logical acceptability of constructing it in that particular way, I think it kinda takes the romance out of things…
I ask myself, where else does this show up? does it actually change how we think about things?

Every time I go driving through a construction zone, I see the sign that informs you of the overall cost of the improvements. No. Wait. Did I say cost? I meant value: the value of the improvements (cue profanity here). I admit this grievance has been simmering nicely for some time and that I get frustrated with the most ridiculous of things. But why oh why does the government feel the need to phrase infrastructure improvements in terms of Value? The Value of this bridge enhancement is $4.3 million.

First of all, that is ridiculous by definition. Value and Cost are very different things. Cost and value are not synonyms. The cost of an ice cold coke on a 40 degree day is the same as it is on a minus 40 degree day. Its thirst quenching abilities are far more valuable on that hot day than the cold day. Value differs, cost remains the same. Same with the bridge. It could connect two towns for the first time ever, reuniting families and providing a good place to hang effigies off of, or it can be one of several dozen bridges in walking distance.

This feeling of immaturity and minor outrage was recently compounded when I went clothes shopping. For the second time this year… as one could clearly see if spotting me in the halls. The tag did not have a cost, it did not have a price… no, it had a value. The clothes that I was to purchase held only value. Only because of social convention did I take them to the till and whip out my credit card.

Have we gone nuts as a society? Are we so imbedded in market values that costs are to be boogeymaned and we should cover our eyes and mutter loudly? Danger young Will Robinson! Danger! I hate to tell you that life existed prior to economics. Strictly speaking, foreplay isn’t necessary for makin babies. But life is more than mechanics. It seems as though the market mentality has the power to remove some essential component of reality. That’s all.