The Human Advantage by Jay W. Richards

Author:Jay W. Richards
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: The Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2018-06-19T04:00:00+00:00

OPTIONS, OPTIONS, AND MORE OPTIONS

The unique value of human creativity is obvious when it comes to handmade caskets with inlaid prayer text. But the unsung heroes of this economic shift are networks, which allow the personal touch to find its way into the nooks and crannies of global markets. Take a trivial example. Right now, I can go on eBay and buy any conceivable kind of silk tie for about six dollars. I have 47,941 choices. These ties are machine-made in garment factories in China. I could wear one to a meeting and none would be the wiser. But I never buy these ties. Instead, I search for ties that are new without tags or pre-owned but pristine, such as Charvet ties made by hand in France.

Even at a discount, these ties may cost ten times more than the ties from China. Am I irrational to search for and buy them? And what about the men who buy Charvet ties at Neiman Marcus for—gulp—$245? Are they crazy? Maybe. But clearly there’s a market for such ties or they wouldn’t exist.

Why the market? Well, some men notice the subtle differences between the Chinese factory-made ties and European handmade ones, just as some people discern oaky or pomegranate undertones in a glass of wine. A high-end tie brand like Charvet signifies quality. And since they’re handmade, their supply is limited. Until recently, to get one of these ties, you had to either go to the store in Paris—at 25 place Vendôme, in the 1st arrondissement—or drop a load of cash at one of the few authorized retailers, such as Neiman Marcus.

That is, until eBay created a global aftermarket for them. Thousands of small merchants can find the ties and sell them to picky professors who can’t afford $245 ties but are happy to nab them a few months after they come out for far less money. This is another example of what a hyper-connected market affords. Mastering the handmade tie market takes a lot of fashion fussiness, so it sits way out on the long tail of the tie market. In another age, it would have sat so far out there it would have been lost. But eBay has taken a highly specialized, narrow market, and opened it up to anyone with an internet connection. There are artisan-tie merchants who owe their livelihoods to eBay shining a light that far out on the long tail of commerce. It has also opened the supply of mass-produced ties with “Made in China” tags to the 99 percent of humanity who couldn’t care less about fancy French cravats.

Think again about the Dalys’ enterprise. The market for Marian Caskets on Vashon Island (population 10,000) is niche almost to the point of vanishing. In 2015, the island was reported to be the most liberal place in the country.2 My family and I lived there in 2013, and I would guess that the number of daily pot smokers on Vashon exceeds the number of churchgoers—let alone Catholics.

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