Commodity Fetishism

I’d like to introduce you to a common type of fetish you may not have heard of, but regularly enjoy.

It’s called commodity fetishism and was first described by Karl Marx way back in 1867.

It’s having a significant impact on the profitability and sustainability of regional business.

How so?

There are two headlines that continue to dominate the media.

 

They are: households complaining about the cost of living and, businesses complaining about the cost of operating.

We have been groomed with new lifestyle expectations; totally convinced that everything must be had as an absolute necessity.

But as business owners we have also been groomed as consumers of inputs.

Our behaviour as business owners can also drive-up the cost of doing business.

Social researcher Mark McCrindle calls this expectation inflation.

Are we so convinced that as business owners we must have the latest, the biggest or the most of everything?

A tempting proposition.

However, overcapitalising our business beyond its reasonable productive capacity will derail it.

But why would any business owner in their right mind deliberately derail their own business?

A driving force behind commodity fetishism within a business is risk appetite.  Financial literacy is a key measure of risk appetite – normally.  But when commodity fetishism takes hold, we make purchasing decisions the implications of which we don’t understand.

Tammy May of My Budget fame has a simple yet thriving business helping those who have ‘overcapitalised’ the household budget.

Interestingly, the Regional Australia Institute identified that poor financial skills is potentially the single biggest factor negatively impacting the prosperity of regional business.

As we hang-up our stockings and think about spending, perhaps as business owners we should make 2015 a ‘socks-n-jocks’ year.

DIDO employees are shrinking regional economies.

I write a fortnightly column for a newspaper based in the Mid North of South Australia.

We tackle all things rural, regional, agribusiness and food.

Some pieces are light, topical and trending.  Some dig deeper, exploring life as a business based in the regions.

As with any of the articles or opinion pieces I’ve had published over years, there’s the anticipation of at which point you’ll touch a nerve.

A recent column that raised the issue of DIDOs in our region did just that – hit a nerve.

So I wanted to share it with my broader network and hear peoples’ feedback.

What are some examples of economic strategies to mitigate the impact of DIDOs?

With the magic of hindsight, it’s easy to see that our region was totally exposed to the creeping phenomenon of the DIDO worker.

Millions of dollars generated / provided by the region is extracted (paid) and spent elsewhere.

That money is no longer circulating in our local economy and the result is stark.

What happened in your region?  How did you mitigate the impact of DIDOs?

If you are a DIDO, what would it take for you to live where you work?

What’s worse – a FIFO or a DIDO?

Is it just me or are things pretty stagnant at the moment?  I can’t help but feel we still struggle to hold our towns together, under the weight of so many pressures that ultimately fall onto the shoulders of a shrinking pool of individuals – as is the case in rural and regional communities.

The tension is mounting.  Do you get a sense that we are the poor buggers that have been left to carry it all on?  People are getting tired, worn out and penniless.

I have a theory.  It’s about micro economics and its importance in bolstering regional communities.  You could call it grass-roots economics.

Economically we’ve lost our mojo.  Let me explain.

Everyone has heard of the FIFO – fly in fly out workers.

I’ve invented a new one.  The DIDO – drive in drive out workers.

DIDO’s draw vast amounts of money out of regional communities; money that leaves the region to be spent elsewhere.

Arguably, there is several million dollars that no longer circulates in our community.

The slow creeping effect of money leaving our communities with DIDOs has been devastating.

It’s easy to see how this region was uniquely positioned to be directly influenced by the inevitable DIDO phenomenon.

We needed an economic strategy to mitigate the impact.
 

But what if those leading the economic strategy for a region are DIDOs themselves?  Will they see what hurts those left behind in small communities?

Not an easy subject to tackle; but I think it’s important we all understand the dynamics influencing our region, as it has a direct bearing on how well we plan our economic future.

A challenge for the new councillors and one they should be allowed to sink their teeth into.

BTW - Please do not go out and round-up all the DIDOs into the triangle with burning torches.  We are all guilty of by-passing local business now and then.