Hoover went apple picking Saturday. Actually a whole fleet of school buses took a crowd of pale, bleary-eyed Palevskyites to Indiana to pick apples. It was a day in the country. Well, a day at a huge pick-your-own-apples commercial orchard. There were animals to pet. Trailers pulled by tractors to ride. Corn mazes in which one could lose your way. Donuts to buy. Simple pleasures.
But it is so hard to shake that Chicago view of the world. I couldn't help but feel like the whole experience required critical analysis. It needed to be taken apart. Deconstructed. Unpacked. Observed with an objective scientific eye.
Thank God for economists. Pop economist Daniel Gross helped put it all in perspective for me:
Apple picking is a cherished rite of fall, a wholesome and fun family outing, a throwback to a simpler time when people weren't so disconnected from the production of their sustenance. It's also a wasteful scam.
Great. Good to have my cynicism confirmed. It just isn't efficient to turn a bunch of people loose in an orchard, when they are all untrained in the work of harvesting carefully cultivated fruits. Apples get dropped on the ground. Stepped on. Eaten. And instead of being paid to do this, as real agricultural workers would be, this mob pays for the privilege of harvesting the orchard's apples. This turns wage theory on its head. Next time we hire someone to babysit our kids we are going to demand that they pay us for the pleasure.
That's not all Gross has to say about apple orchards:
These trees are hardly natural. They aren't the sort of majestic, voluptuous apple trees you would have found in the Garden of Eden. They're dwarf apple trees, stumpy bushes engineered so that their fruit grows just a few feet off the ground. They're the veal calves of the fruit world.
So we aren't even communing with nature. The fujis and golden deliciouses and galas and mcintoshes we were picking were genetically engineered mutants. As much a product of man as that computer in front of you, or Paris Hilton's nose.
That's the thing about a University of Chicago experience. It can ruin everything. Even a pleasant day in the country.
2 comments:
I'll pay to babysit your kids any day.
P.S. Cutest picture ever! Did Jonah have fun or he is also indoctrinated with the U of C cynicism that prevents any and all types of fun from being had?
Psh, not all Chicago-ers are cynical. :( You need to rediscover your inner child/innocence and just have a good time like Jonah! What a cute picture. :D
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