Will the "new artisans" save the global economy?

Everybody loves small businesses.  To the Occupy {your location here} protestors, mom-and-pop establishments represent the authentic alternative to soulless corporations.  To tea partiers, small businesses are the entities most vulnerable to taxation and regulation.  Statistics show that small businesses create a lot of jobs.  It is impossible to conceive of an anti-small-business lobby in America today.

What's more, in certain corners of the United States this is a golden age of small business.  Durham, NC is one of those corners.  We have a vibrant community of small-scale businesses doing a wonderful job of selling bread, wine, popsicles, chocolate, grass-fed hamburgers, beer, handicrafts, and so forth.  We have a thriving year-round farmer's market.  You can say much the same thing about many other cities -- Seattle, for example, has an astonishing array of small business-people plying artisan trades.

These "artisan" small businesses compete directly with big corporations.  They survive by offering higher-quality merchandise to a clientele that values quality.  Because they do not employ mass-production techniques, and often insist on higher-quality raw materials, their wares are more expensive than what you might find at McDonald's or Wal-Mart.  The 99-cent McDouble competes directly against the (local-pasture-raised, antibiotic-free, with a patty made in the restaurant's kitchen and not at a factory) $6 "Bull City" burger.  A $125 pair of Bill's Khakis competes against the imported Dockers that go for $20 on sale at JC Penney.

Technology has played a critical role in the establishment of the new artisans.  Up until a couple of years ago, a stop for lunch on the road in an unfamiliar town would typically involve a fast food outlet.  Today, armed with a smartphone, one can seek out the best mom-and-pop restaurant in any town -- or even track down a food truck serving great grub with almost no overhead.  The potter who once relied on foot traffic can now rely on web traffic (not to mention the availability of inexpensive worldwide shipping).  Free information is clearly the artisan's friend.  Cheap transportation is more of a two-edged sword.  It's what helped Amazon kill bookshops and Wal-Mart kill almost everything else.  But it also frees the artisan from the tyranny of having to rely only on local customers.

One vision of the next full-employment American labor market would look heavily to the artisans.  After eliminating most of our own jobs by inventing production processes that obviate the need for all but the cheapest, least-skilled labor, maybe we'll discover that we like the old products, made the old-fashioned way, better.  We'll gravitate toward a pattern of economic activity that looks more like the days before Henry Ford's invention of the assembly line, just without all the racial discrimination, toxic effluents, communicable disease, etc.

There's one problem with this vision, and it all goes back to the fact that artisans are expensive.  Not every family will pay $5 for a loaf of bread when they can get one for less than $2 at the grocery store. It is not coincidental that the new artisan meccas also happen to be cities closely tied to booming post-industrial industry.  For the artisans to survive, they need a clientele with large--or at least modest-- amounts of disposable income.  In Seattle, New York, London, and the Research Triangle, you've got that.  In the withering small towns and former industrial cities of America, you don't.

There's a second problem, which just goes with the small-business territory.  Small ventures are risky, and many artisan entreprenuers may find they need to try a few times before they succeed.  If you work for Ford or Goldman Sachs, and you are competent at what you do, your job is almost certain to be there for ten years or more.  You can't say the same thing about any artisan business.

So, artisans by definition live a precarious existence, and to survive need either people earning big paychecks -- from the corporate entities of the world -- or to convince the larger majority of citizens that it is worth cutting back on certain areas of expenditure in order to eat better food and own sturdier stuff.  Will the average American family give up the annual trip to Disney World in order to afford better but much more expensive goods?  Will they downsize their homes and cars?  The neo-Victorian-Utopian vision of an economy based on thriving little shops (each with their side business in internet sales) will work on a grand scale only under two conditions.  First, consumers must be willing to part with at least some of their post-Victorian niceties: big houses, big vacations, and plenty of cars.  Second, at least some workers must be willing to accept certain aspects of employment in the Victorian era that we'd sooner forget: long hours, low pay, and little job security.

Comments

[Ms deda]

Hello,
What you suggest is a change in the narratives we regard as a given in our society. However, our present economic situation which may be the new normal may lead us in that direction.

[Kevin]

I agree that the problem lies with the higher cost. I do honestly believe though, that gradually, people are becoming more aware of the higher quality of artisan food and the increased health benefits.
Personally, the improved taste alone is worth paying extra for. No matter, people need to prioritize how they spend their money. Do I need that iPad or should I spend more on the food that I fuel my body with?