The Impossibility of Punk Rock Without Capitalism

by Greg Newburn

I recently read an interview with former Gainesville, Florida punk band Discount, in which the guitarist paraphrased an argument that amounted to “Capitalism is killing music” (Ink 19, November 1998).  In one sentence, he summed up the complete ignorance and naiveté of economics found in today’s punk rock scene.  While it may have helped them sell copies of their Billy Bragg cover album, “Love, Billy” (which I highly recommend), statements such as the one above do far more harm than good.  Without capitalism, meaning the wealth it produces and the network of cooperation it provides; punk rock (this means you, Discount) literally could not exist.[1]

In a story written by the Foundation for Economic Education founder Leonard Read called  “I, Pencil,”[2] Read shows the creation of even the simplest item, a pencil, requires an extensive network of social cooperation which exists only in free markets.   Because of the amount of knowledge required, Read argues no person knows how to make a pencil.  Instead we must rely on dispersed knowledge of thousands of people, each specializing in one area of production, to create any consumer good.  In Read’s tradition, I will show that because of the innumerable facets of even one punk rock show, punk rock could not exist without the division of labor under capitalism.

What goes on at a punk rock show?  Pared down to its essentials, bands play to entertain an audience.  What allows a punk rock band to play?  A band needs electric and bass guitars, drums, a microphone, amplifiers, cabinets with speakers, and of course wires and electricity.  Let us take just one of these items, the guitar, and show how no person could ever dream of making a guitar, but how capitalism makes millions available to whoever wants to play, ultimately providing the foundation for the existence of punk rock (leather jackets and spikes notwithstanding). 

Of what materials is a guitar made?  Let us begin with the wood that will be the body and neck of the guitar.  As Read points out in reference to his pencil, “think of all the saws and truck and rope and the countless other gear used in harvesting and carting the logs…” Read continues, “Think of all the persons and the numberless skills that went into their fabrication: the mining of ore, the making of steel and its refinement into saws, axes, motors; the logging camps with their beds and mess halls, the cookery and the raising of all the foods.  Why, untold thousands of persons had a hand in every cup of coffee the loggers drink!”

With the logs cut, think of the shipping to the factories where the wood is cut into the shape of a guitar.  Think of the people who make the trucks, the engines, and the communication systems that help in the shipping phase.  Now that the guitar has been cut, think of how many people are involved in creating, storing, and shipping the paint that will make the guitar appealing to the potential buyer.  Apply the same process for the strings and the nickel in each one, the pick-ups with their magnets, the tuners of plastic or metal, the guitar cords with the copper and intricate wiring of each one, the guitar cases, picks, and even the strap that allows musicians to play standing up (or jumping around). 

The same process can be applied to the rest of the equipment a band uses at a show.  The drums, with brass cymbals, wooden sticks, and plastic heads, along with the intricacy of the bass drum pedal, require millions of bits of specialized knowledge.  Amplifiers with intricate circuits, wiring, glass tubes, switches, and even the electricity that allows the amplifiers to work are all subject to the same process.  Every aspect of a punk rock show, from the materials and labor used to make the venue, down to the ink and paper required to make fliers for shows (not to mention the intricacies of the copy machine on which fliers are reproduced!) requires a vast, decentralized network under the division of labor. 

In each example above, millions of people cooperate with one another, each knowing no more than very few of the others.  Not one person in the entire creation process has enough knowledge to make a guitar completely by himself.  Further, no one in the process performs his singular task because he wants the final product.  Each may want it less than the future guitarist of a punk band.  Most in the guitar-making process will likely never even play a guitar seriously.  But their motivation is different.  Each person in the process exchanges his specialized knowledge for the goods and services he needs or wants.

The most astounding fact in the process of making an instrument is the lack of any planner dictating or forcibly directing the creation of the instrument.  There is no central planning board or “benevolent dictator” directing the different materials and labor into making a certain number of guitars each year.  In fact, the entire process is simply the combination of natural resources coupled with free, uncoerced human energy—a vast network of specialized knowledge spontaneously coordinated in response to some consumer desire—in the complete absence of any human master-minding.  It is in the truest sense “anarchy of production” that gives us the instruments required to play our music. 

One would be hard-pressed to argue that any one person, or small group of people, has enough knowledge to direct how many resources should be used to create musical instruments?  In what quantity?  What style, and shape?  Electric, or (gasp!) acoustic only?  How many potential musicians will be allowed to purchase equipment? Who decides how many instruments one can buy or learn to play? Planning and socialism cannot answer these questions.  Under capitalism, young punks looking to start a band can be certain that at any time, entrepreneurs will be there to sell them exactly what they want.        

Imagine a scenario under which the means of production have been turned over to the state. A production board determines how resources will be allocated, for what purpose each natural resource will be used, and in what quantity each item will be produced. Some may believe there are more “socially important” ways to use wood, metal, and plastic than making guitars.  Perhaps the planning board will want to use the wood once allocated for guitars for building houses, boats, or some other purpose they see as more noble.

Of course this means the planning board has to choose between competing alternatives.  How will the board make the decision?  Some may argue they will always use the resources to promote socially valuable goals.  A more realistic interpretation of decision-making is that the board will be lobbied by various special interests, each aiming at securing its own existence through the muscle of the all-powerful board.[3]  Likely the board members will use their power to give favors to those most likely to keep the members in power.  Has experience with government not proven that this is precisely what happens when politicians and bureaucrats have control over resources?  Finally, can anyone believe that planners and politicians would have the best interests of punk rock at heart, when deciding how to allocate resources?  With capitalism, we are certain punk can exist, because it does exist.  Under socialism or planning, who can be sure?

We know by experience that capitalism provides consumers with just about anything they can dream of.  Paupers of today literally live better, longer, more convenient lives than kings of past centuries.[4] We also know that central planning and socialism fail to provide for even the most basic needs of citizens.  Under the latter, punk rock would die out of the sheer necessity to spend one’s time on more important subjects, such as finding ways not to starve.  Once those needs are taken care of, there would be no instruments to play, or clubs at which to play, except in the unlikely event that the central planning board decrees it so.

Ludwig von Mises wrote in Human Action that critics of capitalism should apply to capitalism the words of Sir Christopher Wren’s epitaph in St. Paul’s Cathedral in London: Si monumentum requiris, circumspice.  “If you seek his monument, look around.” Before they make any more reckless comments about capitalism, punks should ask themselves how they would secure their Les Paul custom guitars, Mesa Boogie amplifiers, and Shure SM-58 microphones in a controlled economy.   Then they should re-write their lyrics.

February 3, 2002

This article is part of a larger article on socialism, egalitarianism, interventionism, and anarchy. The complete piece will run in a future issue of The Anti-Statist Monthly.

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