Postwar Fordist affluence made pure image production a basis for capital accumulation.

Evidence

It has always been the case, of course, that symbols of wealth, status, fame, and power as well as of class have been important in bourgeois society, but probably nowhere near as widely in the past as now. The increasing material affluence generated during the post­ war Fordist boom posed the problem of converting rising incomes into an effective demand that satisfied the rising aspirations of youth, women, and the working class. Given the ability to produce images as commodities more or less at will, it becomes feasible for ac­ cumulation to proceed at least in part on the basis of pure image production and marketing. The ephemerality of such images can then be interpreted in part as a struggle on the part of the oppressed groups of whatever sort to establish their own identity (in terms of street culture, musical styles, fads and fashions made up for them­ selves) and the rush to convert those innovations to commercial advantage (Carnaby Street in the late 1960s proved an excellent pioneer). The effect is to make it seem as if we are living in a world of ephemeral created images. — David Harvey, The Condition of Postmodernity, 1825

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the reader’s interest in flexible accumulation vs. periodization rivals — this is the economic base for the ephemeral-image thesis that rivals other accounts of postmodern culture.
• ADDENDUM: Relates to ‘On Sacrifice’ only loosely, but more directly parallels the class-identity-signaling theme in ‘Complaints About Immodesty Go Way Back’ — oppressed groups asserting identity through style, then commercial co-optation.