They also advertise new wares
that will create new wants, bring back old customers and attract new
ones.
For the foot-weary customer who has shopped away his energy and
enthusiasm for buying more and more, a civilized marketplace furnishes
food and shelter, recreation, entertainment and culture--beer,
libraries, concert halls and circuses as well as food, clothing and
shelter.
These multiple functions of a civilized economy are part and parcel of
the changes which have converted the simple barter deal of exchanging a
pair of shoes for a shirt into a specialized, civilized market place.
They also cause civilized economies to devote far more time and money to
marketing goods and services than they spend in their manufacture. In a
broad sense, these supplementary costs are "overhead."
Shirt makers and shoemakers convert raw materials and partly finished
goods into shirts and shoes. Operating costs of manufacture are minimal
in a civilized economy. The major items that go into the final price of
the product are overhead costs.
Current accounting practices include in overhead: taxes, interest,
insurance and general items. Actually the price of goods and services in
a civilized economy includes minimal charges for raw materials and labor
and maximum charges for overhead.
There is another phase of overhead which pyramids with each advance in
the extent and complexity of a civilization--taxes to cover the costs of
government.
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