The Marginal Revolution Podcast

Episode Title: In Praise of Commercial Culture
Release Date: September 23, 2025
Hosts: Alex Tabarrok (A), Tyler Cowen (B)
Produced by: Mercatus Center, George Mason University

Episode Overview

This episode revisits Tyler Cowen’s influential 1998 book, In Praise of Commercial Culture, unpacking its arguments about the relationship between capitalism and the arts. Co-hosts Alex Tabarrok and Tyler Cowen explore how economic incentives, markets, and commercial structures facilitate artistic innovation, diversity, and quality. The conversation weaves through art history, publishing, music, government patronage, pessimism about culture, and the evolving economics of creativity, while connecting Cowen’s decades-old observations to contemporary developments.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Genesis and Legacy of the Book

• Motivation to Write: Tyler credits Alex for introducing him to Camille Paglia, inspiring him to write a passionate, detailed book about art from an economic perspective ([02:04]).
  • “You deserve the credit for my having written this book...” – B ([02:04])
• Publishing History: The book faced repeated rejections before Harvard University Press published it, thanks to Thomas Schelling’s intervention ([03:17]).
  • “And Tom said, well, let me write Harvard University Press...” – B ([03:18])
• Timelessness: Alex praises the book for filling a unique gap in literature by focusing on capitalism and the arts, noting its enduring relevance ([00:02]).

2. Incentives, Money, and Artistic Creation

• Artists and Money: Contrary to common perception, even great artists like Mozart, Beethoven, and Michelangelo were heavily motivated by financial concerns ([04:52]).
  • “If you read the letters of Mozart or Beethoven, they're obsessed with money...” – B ([04:52])
• Money as Means to Art: Economic resources enable artists to realize larger visions (better instruments, orchestras, etc.). Artists caring about art often care about money ([04:52]-[05:29]).
• The Role of Consumers: Art emerges from a "continuous dialogue" between producer and consumer. High-quality audiences often drive high-quality art ([07:12]).
  • “Art consists of a continual dialogue between producer and consumer...” – quotation by A from Cowen’s book ([06:37])

3. Market Evolution, Wealth, and Diversity in Art

• Social Wealth and Artistic Freedom: As markets grow, artists can choose between prioritizing audiences (“selling out”) and personal experimentation – sometimes within the same career ([09:05]).
• Artist-Consumer Tensions: The recurring, sometimes intensifying, conflict between artists’ desires and audience expectations. The richer the society, the more pronounced the push-pull ([10:32]).

4. Government, Patronage, and Bureaucracy in the Arts

• Government as Art Patron: Government support works best when it acts as a discerning customer rather than a bureaucratic distributor ([14:10]).
  • “Often government support for the arts does better when the government treats itself like a commercial customer…” – B ([14:10])
• Democratic Politics vs. Artistic Innovation: Bureaucracy and consensus-seeking stifle groundbreaking art; earlier, more elite-driven grant models (e.g., early NEA) were more effective ([14:59], [15:47]).
• Rent-Seeking and Elitism: Artistic cliques sometimes control subsidies to promote their tastes or friends, as seen with France’s cinema subsidies ([16:53]).

5. Commerce, Consumption, and Cross-Subsidies

• Cross-Subsidies in Art: Popular, “pulp and trash” works fund the infrastructure that allows masterpieces to be created and accessible ([28:22]).
  • “The pulp and trash cross subsidize the masterpieces...” – B ([28:22])
• Book and Music Markets:
  • Explosion in book titles reflects both increased supply and shifting consumption patterns ([20:15]).
  • Streaming and digital platforms foster niche markets but also amplify passive, “crap” consumption ([42:59]).

6. Optimism vs. Pessimism in Cultural Evaluation

• Cultural Pessimism: Seen as perennial and psychologically driven — a cognitive illusion shaped by retrospective selection and generational biases ([46:36]).
  • “We are like observers on a shoreline, watching ships sail away over the horizon...” – A quoting B ([47:46])
• Stock vs. Flow: The greatness of the past is easier to perceive because only the best endures; the future is inherently uncertain ([50:12]).
• Generational Effects: Music and culture from one’s youth feel deeper due to psychological imprinting ([51:12]-[53:22]).

7. Culture, Innovation, and Dynamic Markets

• Competition as Discovery: Drawing from Hayek and Julian Simon, Cowen argues that dynamic competition is essential for cultural innovation ([26:59]).
  • “The market is a dynamic process... How do you discover and help create new art?...” – B ([26:59])
• Why Capitalist Markets Outperform: Market incentives, diversity of funding, and opportunity for experimentation lead to more varied and higher quality cultural production ([28:13]).

8. Commercial Practices Informing Art

• Department Store Displays & Art: Techniques of product display inspired methods of art presentation and curation ([31:11]).
• Slotting Fees and Payola: Practices condemned in one context, like payola in music, are standard in retail (e.g., shelf placement) — and can help new genres or works reach audiences ([39:19]).

9. Trends and Questions in Contemporary Culture

• The Evolution of Television: Restrictions on entry and ad-driven models once stifled TV creativity; cable, streaming, and online platforms unleashed a golden era (now waning) ([17:22]).
• Book Reading and Attention Spans: Attention spans may be polarizing (more super-long/short content), with book reading down but reading overall (including digital) possibly up ([21:22]).
• Fashion and Architecture Stagnation: Stagnation in recent decades may reflect changes in technology, bureaucracy, consumer needs, and signaling ([55:00]).

10. Cultural Democratization and Elite Opinion

• Democratization & Excellence: Despite democratization, critical consensus (experts, critics, market) still identifies enduring art, even if tastes and forms shift ([34:27]).
• The Persistence of Cultural Elitism: Both market dynamics and elite preferences shape which works are recognized, funded, and preserved ([34:55]).

11. Pessimism as Myth

• Cultural Pessimism as Narrative: Functions like myth or religion — offering explanations for discontent and change ([60:04]).
  • “Cultural pessimism… serves as a competitor to myth and magic.” – B ([60:04])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

Opening Praise & Motivation for the Book

• “Sort of the idea of an economist writing about culture... you put in so many details and so much love of art and art history that I think that critique does not apply. It cannot be said on reading this book that you are a philistine.” – A ([00:02])

The Role of Consumers

• “Inspired consumption is a creative act that further enriches the viewer and the work itself. So what's inspired consumption?” – A ([06:37])

• “Very often you need great audiences to have great art. Someone has to be watching or listening and care...” – B ([07:12])

Creative Tension: Artists vs. Market

• “The more an artist cares about art in many situations, the more they're going to care about money. It's a very simple point, but at the time, or even still, you didn't hear it much. It's always money versus art, rather than you can care about money as a means to your art.” – B ([04:52])

• “There's this recent movie, the Brutalist, about an architect... he wanted to make the movie his own way and the rest of the world didn't necessarily want to cooperate. So I think you replicate that dynamic at all levels of wealth.” – B ([10:32])

Government as Art Patron

• “Often government support for the arts does better when the government treats itself like a commercial customer with desires and whims and fancies of its own. And this was the case in the Italian Renaissance...” – B ([14:10])

Cross Subsidies

• “Masterpieces usually arise in a climate full of pulp and trash.” – B ([28:22])

On Cultural Pessimism

• “We are like observers on a shoreline, watching ships sail away over the horizon. This is the arts, which are declining in quality. We can see the departing ships dwindle in size, but we cannot observe the new ships approaching.” – A quoting B ([47:46])

Closing Reflection

• “We now know that women's quilts stand among the best American artworks of the 19th century, and that Central African Pygmies are among the world's most talented musicians. In light of such discoveries, should we not upwardly revalue our estimation of the world's cultural prospects?” – A quoting B ([61:28])

Selected Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamps (MM:SS) | |------------------------------------------|-----------------------------| | Book Origin & Publishing Story | 02:04 – 03:48 | | Money & Artistic Motivation | 04:52 – 05:42 | | Dialogue Between Art and Audience | 06:37 – 08:26 | | Wealth, Division of Labor, and Genres | 09:05 – 10:32 | | Government Patronage & the Market | 14:10 – 16:53 | | Commercial Influence on Art | 31:11 – 32:08 | | Cross-Subsidies in Books & Art | 28:22 – 28:46 | | On Cultural Pessimism | 46:36 – 51:21 | | Book & Music Market Dynamics | 20:15 – 23:28; 42:59 – 43:54| | Competition/Discovery Process (Hayek) | 26:59 – 28:13 | | Closing Thoughts on Artistic Value | 61:28 – 63:11 |

Flow & Takeaways

The conversation is lively, richly anecdotal, and maintains a tone of both economic rigor and reverence for the unpredictable beauty of cultural production. Throughout, the hosts stress that:

• Markets don’t just enable commerce—they produce diversity, audience engagement, and serendipity in art.
• Pessimism about contemporary culture is natural, even rational, but often misplaces the lessons and vitality that markets generate.
• Many supposedly commercial practices (payola, slotting fees) are misunderstood and can benefit artistic discovery.
• Elite consensus and popular taste, government and private patronage, the old and the new—all intermingle, creating the churn that ultimately yields both masterpieces and mediocrities.

In Praise of Commercial Culture remains a robust defense of capitalism’s vital, if messy, partnership with human creativity.

Recommendation:
Check out Cowen’s In Praise of Commercial Culture for a deeper dive, and keep an eye on emerging art forms—you might be watching tomorrow’s masterpieces set sail.