There Are Some Things Money Can't Buy. . . Not Many, But Some

HOMER: Hey what's Lucky hooked up to?

NURSE: A respirator.  It breathes for him.

HOMER: And here I am, using my own lungs like a sucker!

People dissatisfied with life have long sought the counsel of psychologists and counselors, motivational speakers and life coaches.  Now, another arrow in the self-help quiver takes the form of "wantologists": professional therapists who specialize in helping people figure out what they want--"they" being the clients; the wantologists have presumably gotten everything they want simply by virtue of convincing people they exist.  I guess a wantologist's successful clients then seek the services of a "getologist" to help them attain their desires.

Of course, if I want someone to tell me what I want, it hardly seems I need the want-identifying services of a wantologist.  The rabbit hole beckons.

Sociologist Arlie Russell Hochschild sees wantology as a symptom of a larger societal ill: the trend to "outsource" tasks previously considered essential parts of the self:

We've put a self-perpetuating cycle in motion. The more anxious, isolated and time-deprived we are, the more likely we are to turn to paid personal services. . . .If we can afford the services involved, many if not most of us are prone to say, sure, why not?

She has a point. Why spend time cooking a meal when I can simply pay for Chinese take-out?  People will object that this is more expensive and/or less healthy than preparing a home-cooked meal.  It's true that it costs more money: I could probably purchase the ingredients to make a healthy meal for a family of three for less than I would spend on the same meal from a restaurant; however, this fails to take into account the value of my time.  If I earn the equivalent of about $50 an hour, and if it would take about an hour to prepare the meal, then, financially, I sort of come out ahead in the deal by ordering in.  Some say that preparing food for one's family is an act of love and should not be equated with work.  To those people I say, if you love cooking so much, why don't you come over to my place so I can not pay you to make me dinner.  Win-win situation!

As for the relative health benefits of a home-cooked meal. . . .Let's just say, you've never eaten my cooking.

The question is, where does the "marketization" of society end?  If we can pay someone to cook our meals, watch our children--hell, give birth to our children--and figure out what it is we want, what can't we pay someone for?  Prostitution is generally illegal, but given the social trend toward paying for any and everything--and toward seeing this as perfectly acceptable--one must wonder, Why?  Because prostitution exploits the poor? No doubt, this is true.   But the wantologists featured in Hochschild's article hardly seem exploited--or poor.  Why not monetize organ donation?  If something can be outsourced, why shouldn't it be?

Now, I just need to hire someone to write this blog.  I can pay in cats.