(Advanced) Why We Hate Cheap Things

In assessing what material things are important and worth paying attention to, we’re oddly prejudiced against cheapness – and frustratingly drawn to the expensive, for reasons that don’t necessarily stand up to examination.

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Why we hate cheap things

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1. The Pineapple

Columbus was the first European to be delighted by its physical _______ and _______ sweetness.

Pineapples _______ extremely difficult to transport and very costly to __________.

The fourth Earl of Dunmore built a temple on his Scottish estate in its _______.

Christopher Wren had no ________ in topping the south tower of Saint Paul's in London with this evidently divine fruit.

There were huge ________ in steam technology.

Transport costs ___________ and __________ transformed the psychology of pineapple eating.

The pineapple _____ hasn't changed. Only our _______ to it has.

Contemplation of the history of the pineapple suggests a curious ________ between love and economics.

When we have to pay a lot for something nice, we appreciate it to the ____. Yet as it's price in the market falls, passion has a habit of ______ away.

If it has real virtue and yet a low price, then it's in _______ danger of falling into ________.


2. The Sight of Clouds

In 1927 a _______ unknown airmail pilot called Charles Linberg became the first man to complete a solo _____ of the Atlantic...

He was __________ and felt he was becoming for a time almost _________.


3. Why do we associate cheap prices with a lack of value?

Our response seems a _______ from our pre-industrial past.

For most of human history there ____ was a strong _________ between cost and value.

This relationship between price and value ____ true in an _________ way until the end of the Eighteenth Century.

Instead of making wonderful experiences ________ available, industrialisation as _________ produced a different effect.

We have to be very __________ about one's enthusiasm for the eggs of a chicken.

There is an intimidating hierarchy ________ the background _______ what we're allowed to be grateful for...


4. How do we reverse this?

The riches of the Indies would be _______ next to the pleasures of being able to see the ______ of the water created by a jump in one's boots.

Price is never a _____ of value (for children).

Children would be right if prices were _________ by human worth and value, but they're not. They just _________ what things cost to ____.

The ____ is therefore that we do ____ them as a guide to what matters when this ____ what a financial price should be used for.

Cezanne had all the awe, love and excitement ______ the apple that aristocrats once had for the pineapple.

....get us to notice what we already have to ____

We need to _______ our relationship to prices.

We _________ as tokens of _________ value.


Quizlet:

24 terms