The World Needs More $500 Trash Cans

Vipp trash cans -- excuse me, bins -- can sell upwards of $500. Told of this fact, renowned business management author and scholar Henry Mintzberg reportedly replied:

"A world in which people spend $500 on a trash can is not one I want to live in. There are too many problems in the world; pay $30 for a trash can and give the rest to a charity that's trying to end world hunger or common diseases."

Sounds like a noble sentiment -- until you think about it for a bit. If you believe society benefits from products that are aesthetically appealing as well as functional, you have a bone to pick with professor Mintzberg. Should we advocate against the stylish iPhone and bring back the rotary dial? Or, as professors Robert D. Austin (Harvard Business School) and Lee Devin (Swarthmore) answer in a new working paper:

"No, Henry, the world you don't want to live in is one where all trash bins cost $8 because they're produced in sweatshops." And, "How much progress do we need on world hunger and disease before we're allowed to buy tickets to the opera?"

The thorny intersection between commerce and art is at the heart of their paper It Is Okay for Artists to Make Money--No, Really, It's Okay. Too often, they argue, art is moving away from mainstream life and towards a rarefied and polarizing plane. Artists scoff at the thought of being commercialized while we groundlings laugh at the high prices some pieces command.

What art should be, the researchers argue, is something whose value is rewarded by society.

"In a better world, art will command fair prices, best-in-the-world jazz musicians will make as much as partners in consulting firms, and jobs up and down the value chain around such activities will pay a living wage. To fulfill the vision of art as a humanizing force in the world, we need to make the market for art work better, not separate the art world from markets and commercial value."

(Image courtesy Vipp)