It is inevitable that each time a new product
is released into the market, it supplements, improves on, or (in the most
extreme cases) completely replaces an existing commodity, rendering what has
come before it obsolete. Nowhere is this more prevalent than in the realm of
technology, where advances in hardware seem to come as often as the weather
changes. In light of this process, Best Buy’s Buy Back Program, in which
consumers “buy it now [and Best Buy will] buy it back when the new thing comes
out,” attempts to capitalize on consumers’ constantly shifting desires for new
commodities. However, by focusing on the commodities themselves and the service
role that the company takes in facilitating transactions, the commercial
effectively ignores the ways in which modes of labor are shifting and the
implications of an entirely information/service-driven economy should
traditional labor be displaced by technology.
In
order to advertise the Buy Back Program, the commercial directly appeals to
consumers’ feelings of frustration and distress over the constant cycle of
newly-released products. The first five seconds of the advert exaggerates
(perhaps rightly so) the notion of the rapid pace of technological innovation
that renders “everything else… obsolete” (0:04). Additionally, the text cards
proclaiming “Technology moves fast” (0:08) and “We feel your pain” (0:15)
showcase a (perhaps spurious) sense of understanding and sympathy towards the
consumer’s plight. It is only in the last five seconds that the commercial
makes any note of the company or program itself. That is to say, almost the entirety
of the traditional thirty-second commercial is focused on appealing to the viewer’s
reservations about technology and consumption. The rhetoric here seems to be
that it is perfectly acceptable, even encouraged, to desire the new “thing”,
whatever it may be, and the Buy Back Program is a route that enables the consumer
to literally “buy into” the incessant demand for novelty, and, as a result, the
continuation of the consumption process essential to the capitalist system.
The
incessant cycling between the old and the new is a major factor in what
Morris-Suzuki calls the “perpetual innovation economy,” one that “pour[s]
increasing amounts of capital and labor into the development of better
software, new techniques, different products” (18). In light of contemporary
application, this statement may seem problematic as in the past fifteen years, “labor”,
as a productive, human activity in the Marxist sense of the word, is being
increasingly and systematically replaced by automation and robotics technology.
However, Morris-Suzuki does go on to note that “many jobs – particularly jobs
involving personal services – continue to be relatively unmechanized” (24).
This outlook more closely fits with the shift from “productive” to
“non-productive” jobs, or what Mandel sees as the division between “manual and
intellectual labor” (21). A Best Buy employee fits into the category of the
“non-productive” or “service” labor because he/she is not responsible directly
for creating or producing the commodities, but rather acts as the middle ground
between the various technological companies and the consumer(s). In this vein,
the commercial for the Buy Back Program works to situate the corporation as an
important component of the “perpetual innovation economy,” and vital to the
continuation of the capitalist system. According to the commercial, it appears
that without the Buy Back Program, consumers would be left with their obsolete,
and thus ostensibly useless, technology.
Nevertheless,
it must not be forgotten that the “exchange of the ability to work (that is,
labor power) for wages, and wages for necessities” is actually at the core of
the capitalist system (Davis,
et al. 7). Without human labor to generate surplus value for the various
commodities, profits decline. Hirshl argues that the vast, continuous cycles of
technological innovation are “a catalyst for revolutionary change,” the sort of
social change Marx called for (158). Thus, the “cyclic process… [that]
increases unemployment, heightens realization crises, and thereby sets the
competitive conditions encouraging another round of technological adoption” actually
signals the “end” of capitalism, rather than it being an important facet to
continuing the economic structure (164). With technology getting smaller, more
precise, and increasingly sophisticated with each generation, as it is show in
the Best Buy commercial, it is not hard to imagine fully automated production
processes devoid of human labor. In a perhaps slightly less apocalyptic or
revolutionary attitude than Hirshl, Jones also rejects technological advances
as somehow creating a new or sustainable form of capitalism. Jones’s view takes
into account the idea that “information jobs are themselves highly susceptible
to labor displacement,” meaning that as technology renders productive jobs
obsolete, service and information workers will be affected as well (qtd. in
Hirshl 160). That is to say, as technology displaces human labor at the level
of “‘local’ system dynamics [it will] generate ‘emergent’ or ‘global’ dynamics”
(162). Without productive labor, regardless of the site of production (domestic
or foreign), the information/service worker would be out of a job.
In
the end, Best Buy, and subsequently its Buy Back Program, can only exist if
commodities are made with surplus value. Hirshl raises an important issue when
he questions what sort of jobs will be available in “information capitalism” as
“electronics technology replaces labor” (160). Despite Best Buy’s optimistic
stance on the “perpetual innovation economy” and its role in that system, the
future of the capitalist system as Marx outlined remains uncertain as
technology continues to displace human labor in favor of automation. Therefore,
it may not matter where the jobs will be in an “information capitalism,” as there
may not be jobs (at least in the traditional, capitalist sense) to begin with.
(Word count: 927)
---
Davis, Jim, Thomas Hirschl, and
Michael Stack, eds. Cutting Edge. London: Verso, 1997.
Print.
Hirschl, Thomas. “Structural Unemployment
and the Qualitative Transformation of Capitalism.” Cutting Edge. Eds. Jim Davis, Thomas Hirschl, and Michael Stack. London: Verso, 1997. 157-174.
Print.
lordbaenre. “Best Buy ‘Buy Back’ Commercial
– Technology moves fast.” YouTube. 19
May 2011. Web. 30 October 2012.
Morris-Suzuki, Tessa. “Robots and
Capitalism.” Cutting Edge. Eds. Jim Davis,
Thomas Hirschl, and Michael Stack. London:
Verso, 1997. 13-27. Print.
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