When faced with a corn surplus, we stuff it into our bodies for safekeeping. Program about hoarders called “Hoarding: Buried Alive.” TLC is a television network that tirelessly shores up the current American middle class with shows about big families, cupcakes, Sarah Palin and outfits that flatter plus-size figures. These costs, Helper told me, “firms charge too little for their products, causing people to buy too many of them.” So they make more. Heating and cooling of storage facilities, private houses, roads and cars to accommodate the personal “stockpiles” of sundries on display in shows like “Extreme Couponing.” By ignoring Environmental costs are especially substantial if you count not just carbon emissions but the building, But the price of those items at the cash register, even without coupons, is deceptive, according to Susan Helper, theĬhair of the economics department at Case Western Reserve, because costs to the environment are not cranked in. Worth of “toiletries and cosmetics” from China, where production costs are low.

In 2010, the United States imported about $1 billion But changes in the global supply chain have also conspired to simultaneously amp up supply. Retailers have, of course, long used coupons to shed extra inventory. Specifically what’s in play are the cultures of couponing, hoarding and stockpiling - the latest practices to obsessįor a glimpse of the drama, check out the excerpt below of TLC’s “Extreme Couponing,” a deceptively simple look at the complex drama of American spending Who will relieve the groaning supermarket shelves? That’s where culture comes in. Of units of Bounty ExtraSoft paper towels or Dove Ultimate Cool Essentials Anti-perspirant Deodorant, but it seems safe to say that the profusion of this stuff may sometimes eclipse our need for it. It may be hard to imagine that man in his natural state does not crave millions Consumer goods, too, can end up in surplus. Overproduction is not just an agricultural phenomenon. Videos and fashion photography), which play a significant role in refining, sanctifying and curbing demand for food. But its influence can also be found in the pushback against it: foodie-ism and pro-anorexia artifacts (including “thinspiration” Obesity culture abounds today in the form of cup-holders and giant tableware. In the last two decades, a second corn surplus stoked the obesity epidemic, as Americans When corn was plentiful in Appalachia at the start of the 20th century, the nation dutifully sopped up the surplus in corn whiskey. They’re nudged along by culture that stimulates and expresses that demand. In times of abundance, American consumers are crackerjacks at convincing themselves that they desire whatever is in great supply. Virginia Heffernan on digital and pop culture.

Coupon stockpile paper towels