Will Wall Street yield to a new economy based on giving things away? You see it on the avenues of our neighboorhoods - a fundmental shift in our realtionship to stuff.
I saw the downhill ski boots by the side of the road. I was walking my dog. A woman was cleaning her garage. The boots were the first things on the curb. They were purple and white, the size just right. They were barely used.
“You giving these away?”
“We’ve got too much stuff,” the woman pulled a box off the stack without looking up. “If you can use ‘em, take ‘em.”
The heels of my old boots have worn through to the screws. “Break down and buy some new ones,” my son said at the beginning of last year’s ski season. My raggedy ensemble bemuses him. He’s a competitive skier, accustomed to being well equipped.
A few years ago I’d gladly have spent a couple hundred dollars for the right equipment for my favorite sport. But I let the spring post-season discounts slip by without a purchase, partly from parsimoniousness and partly out of the firm conviction that the world already contained too many pairs of size 6 downhill ski boots.
Turns out I was right. But isn’t it shocking? One of two miraculous truths are true. Either, there is a vast metaphysical presence that conspires to put just what you need directly in your path. Or, this country is so damn over-populated with consumer goods that all you have to be is be patient and you’ll get just what you need - for free.
In mid 19th century New York, stock options and other instruments of esoteric risk were traded on the street in front of the exchange. They called it The Curb. In the 1920s it moved inside, became the American Stock Exchange and metamorphosed into today’s NASDAQ.
The new market of the curb is all along the neighborhoods of America. In these places the economy of consumption is all played out. We’ve got way more stuff than we need. Passing along what you no longer use is more satisfying than buying something new. It’s esoteric, unorganized and utterly out-side the economic system. But, like that 19th century New York market of the street, it just might be the future.