The Invisible Hand

See it here.

"If you build it, they will buy it" seems to be the message of today's Dinette Set. How else to explain the manner in which an innocent conversation about overseas manufacturing and economies of scale morphs into an impulse buy?

Joy and Verla, the erudite economists, wrestle with how the manufacturer of the Whatcha-Mu-Callim is able to take advantage of economies of scale while avoiding diseconomies of scale, thus creating artificial demand by dint of sheer volume and visibility at the point-of-purchase.

The excessive abundance of the Whatcha-Mu-Callim is mirrored, syntactically, by an excess of punctuation in the dialog, which features:

• 3 exclamation points
• An extraneous comma ("want one, too, for the holidays")
• The extremely rare exclamation point/ellipses combination.

Burl, on the other hand remains in his role as brainless consumer. Not only is the discussion of economics far beyond his comprehension, he falls for the rather course marketing ploy. He assumes this item, because of its prominent display, must be the accessory all the cool kids will be wearing this Christmas. So Burl purchases one for practically everyone he knows. The only people who will not be receiving one are Ma (not surprisingly) and Dale and Marlene, the neighbors against whom he competes for status symbols and with whom he is locked in a continuing death spiral of acquisitiveness.

The Wealth of Marginalia:

• Whatcha-Mu-Callims? Why use not the more standard (and phonetically-correct) Whatch-Ma-Callems?
• What is it with the fake schnozz fascination? E-R-O-X's comment is as just as apropos now: "Who buys previously opened novelty-nose glasses?"