Mass markets forced consumers to trust unseen strangers and corporations

Evidence

Society was more than ever a complex, cellular organism. Goods (including food) were mass produced and sent long distances. Boundary lines meant nothing. In stores, goods were marketed impersonally, in bulk, or in containers, rather than felt, handled, and squeezed at the point of purchase. The housewife now bought prepared food. This meant she had to rely on other people, on strangers, on corporations in faraway places. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 2631

Categorization

• XREF: Echoes the anonymity-and-trust work on strangers; the shift to trust in invisible corporate producers parallels the trust literature’s account of impersonal markets. — connects to: Early nineteenth-century Americans feared corporations as soulless and immortal concentrations of greed. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1072; The invisible hand’s hiddenness explains why markets lacked popular legitimacy. — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 67; Market production for unknown buyers erodes personal knowledge between parties — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 750 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Market production for unknown buyers erodes personal knowledge between parties #expands (0.92) — Georg Simmel, on individuality and social forms_…, 750
• Mass production forced advertising to both create demand and manufacture brand reputation #expands (0.85) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 201
• Social trust evolved from interpersonal relations to abstract anonymities of mass society #qualifies (0.80) — Diego Gambetta, Trust - Making and Breaking Cooperative…, 2423
• The invisible hand’s hiddenness explains why markets lacked popular legitimacy. #complicates (0.78) — Dieter Plehwe, Quinn Slobodian & Philip Mirowski (eds.), Nine Lives of Neoliberalism, 67
• Belief in a supernatural monitor lowers the cost of trusting strangers in trade networks #expands (0.72) — Norenzayan, Ara, Big gods - how religion transformed…, 204