Scientism and Values.pdf - Ludwig von Mises Institute

124 Scientism and Values
know that We shall buy another car, household appliance, suit,
etc., before long. Leopold Kohr goes so far in his book, The Breakdown
of Nations} published in 1958, as to attribute supreme
happiness to men of former centuries who could wear a cloth for
life. 5
Speculation on what makes human beings happy probably is not
a proper subject for scholars. Least of all, however, do I like it
from those (J. Galbraith, Leopold Kohr, and others) who once attacked
our capitalistic society when it was allegedly rigged for
scarcity.
I submit that interpersonal relations in a society of abundance
can be much better than in a society having to make do with a few
things for a lifetime. It is in precisely the latter that relations are
such that human beings are slaves to things.
Some of us may remember years and decades of extreme scarcity.
Replacement of lost or damaged things was virtually impossible.
And most people behaved accordingly. A child who made cracks
in an appliance or furniture, who broke windows, a stranger who
accidentally made a cigarette-burn in another person's jacket, a
maid or husband who dropped a china plate, all these became the
subjects of strained and often extremely tense human relationships.
We were slaves to things because we knew they had to last
indefinitely.
In comparing human behavior under conditions of scarcity and
abundance, it is interesting to read Hilde Thurnwald's published
survey of family relations in Berlin after World War II. I recall
from her observations the case of a well-bred, intelligent father
who carried his CARE packages home and secretly devoured the
contents in the basement. Is he a more encouraging figure of a
man than the typical upper-middle-class American father of today
who, with his family, indulges in a perhaps overstylized barbecue
ritual in a backyard with dozens of what the antiadvertising intellectuals
call "unnecessary frills and gadgets"? 6
Relations between motorists involved in an accident, parents
and children, supeTVisors and employees, and countless other relations
of daily life become much more tolerable, much less of a