{"id":28649,"date":"2010-11-08T10:52:55","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T15:52:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/?p=28649"},"modified":"2013-12-02T23:27:11","modified_gmt":"2013-12-03T04:27:11","slug":"unfair-capitalist-prices-in-venezuela","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/2010\/11\/08\/unfair-capitalist-prices-in-venezuela\/","title":{"rendered":"Unfair “Capitalist” Prices in Venezuela"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hegemony <\/strong>is a word used by sociologists use to describe how the status quo can be preserved through consent as well as coercion. \u00a0One way to gain consent for the status quo, even if it is unjust, is to make the social arrangements that are in the best interests of the dominant group appear to be in everyone\u2019s best interests. \u00a0When hegemony works, we see\u00a0social cooperation where there would be conflict<\/p>\n

Capitalism is a great example of a hegemonic ideology. \u00a0Nearly all Americans will argue that capitalism is a fair and effective economic system, even though it, by design, benefits some more than others.\u00a0 Instead of banding together and saying “this may be working for you<\/em>, but this isn’t working for us<\/em>,” however, even the poorest of Americans will typically defend capitalism as the best and most just option for the U.S.<\/p>\n

Capitalism, though, is not hegemonic everywhere.\u00a0 F. T. Garcia sent us a link to a photograph snapped by a student of Economics Professor Greg Mankiw and posted on his blog<\/a>.\u00a0 The photo is of a price sign at Mercado Bicentenario in Caracas, Venezuela.\u00a0 The student translated it as follows:<\/p>\n

Description of the product: Diana Oil.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fair Price: 4,73 Bfs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Capitalist Price: 7 Bfs.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

% of savings: 32%.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In this little narrative, capitalism is an unfair economic system that overcharges consumers.\u00a0 It is by definition not <\/em>a fair price.\u00a0 A very different narrative about capitalism than we typically hear in the U.S.<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hegemony is a word used by sociologists use to describe how the status quo can be preserved through consent as well as coercion. \u00a0One way to gain consent for the status quo, even if it is unjust, is to make the social arrangements that are in the best interests of the dominant group appear to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[29,15,98,23703,8075],"class_list":["post-28649","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-class","tag-culture","tag-capitalism","tag-marketing","tag-nation-venezuela"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28649","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28649"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28649\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59587,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28649\/revisions\/59587"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28649"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28649"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28649"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}