Baumol's Disease: Audio-Visual Markets a Cure
GENERAL
Special supplement to the Journal of Cultural Economics. Selected papers presented at the conference L'economie du Spectacle Vivant et L'audiovisual, Paris, France, October 15-16, 1985.
The author offers a Marxist analysis of why the proliferation of channels under commercial control should be resisted. He argues that the market is an invitation to oligarchs who put profit above values or diversity. Although it is cheaper to buy programming than to produce it, such temptation should be resisted or Dallas and its clones will pervade the international airwaves.