Fluff and Stuff

The article titled Fluff and Stuff by Richard A. Lanham paints a picture of the world’s economy as divided by “fluff” and “stuff”. “Stuff” refers to physical objects that occur in our world that have monetary value. The “fluff” is everything else that is included in the economy and otherwise intangible objects that make up the several different economies. With the invention of the internet, things that once carried great value such as tourist destinations, experiences and writing have become more than words. Lanham argues that writing has now evolved to be colorful and loud, arguing for the attention of the reader with more than the content of the piece of writing. The author suggests that we as a world now operate on what he calls an “attention economy” meaning we, as humans, only have a certain amount of attention to give to others, whether that be family, job, famous people, social media, fashion brands or any other person or thing we value. There is this idea that rhetoricians may be the new economists because they are able to hold people’s attention in the attention economy. I’m not sure if I agree with this. I believe people will always hold value based on their experiences and background. In my opinion, physical money will always be relevant.