Notes on the producer society

Summary The author criticizes economists for their uncritical acceptance of consumers’ revealed preference and tries to explain the preferences manifest in the United States by tracing them to cultural influences, especially the Puritan Ethic, and to economic factors, such as producers’ domination and economies of scale. Differences between American and European behavior patterns are sought mainly in comparative time budgets and Hawtrey’s distinction between defensive and creative consumption is revived as a framework suitable for such analysis. These notes constitute an early version of what has since become a much more ambitious work with a more analytical approach, trying to use behavioral psychology to fill in gaps in the economist’s understanding of consumer behavior, and to be published as a book.