I guess there aren't any economies of scale. (Image text)
In the context of economics, “household” is a poor term. It should be replaced with the concept of “catallactics,” which refers to exchange and adaptation.
One of the many problems with economics (oikos-nomia) is that it refers to an outdated world. Today, we live in a diverse economy, and this will likely become even more so in the future. “Economia” refers to an outdated situation where a family believes that everything they want (and supposedly everyone in the family wants the same thing) should, in principle, be done by themselves. If you buy all your household goods as services from others, you lose your money, whereas if you do everything yourself, you lose nothing. Essentially, this logic is the model of a self-sufficient economy, straight out of the 18th-century countryside.
Someone with a poor understanding of economics might think that, in economic terms, it’s generally better to bake your own bread. Those with a good grasp of economics know that if a nation’s average net wage is, say, €3,000 (plus or minus €1,000, which is the case in most Western countries), then on average it isn’t worth it for people to bake their own bread. Why? Because if bread bought at the store costs, say, €5, then making it yourself costs, say, €3. If the goal is material well-being, saving two euros won’t get you very far. Of course, you can start baking because you want your kitchen to smell like fresh bread, but in that case, you’ve simply shifted the value you’re pursuing.
What is easily overlooked is that baking bread is a low-yield activity. Including low-yield work and production in the calculations means taking into account the diversity of goods production. Bread can be replaced with rolls, crispbread, frozen foods, potatoes or other vegetables, omelets, etc.
Bread baking also benefits from economies of scale, meaning that if you produce a thousand units, the unit price is generally lower than when producing just one unit. Professional bakers know how to source their ingredients more cheaply, they can deduct VAT from the cost, they have more efficient machines, etc. The same logic applies to mending socks, growing onions in an allotment garden, window cleaning, ironing, car washing, vacuuming, etc.
However, the most important thing that is often missing in the self-sufficiency model or the household model is valuing one’s own time. It is downright astonishing that many people are voluntarily willing to spend an hour of their free time—their quality time—to save the aforementioned two euros, yet in the labor market, a 10-euro hourly wage is deemed unacceptable, too little.
In fact, the most important goal of stoicism is precisely to try to organize one’s own unique time as well as possible—that is, in a way that allows one to get the most of the things one values most. You have to weigh the fact that when you earn the average net salary of an ordinary person in the West, pinching pennies to save money can be a complete waste of time.
It is certainly conceivable that the modern, multifaceted economy—where all time, products, and services can be considered and evaluated in relation to the market and one’s own changing desires—is a fairly new phenomenon. Perhaps things began to develop in this direction about twenty years after World War II. But since we are, on average, in this situation, the economy should be thought of in a significantly more multifaceted way than according to the narrow-minded “household income minus expenses” model.
Of course, there is no reason to deny the fact that if you are poor in a Western country or live in a very poor country, that diversity may simply be lacking. But it makes just as much sense for the average person to realize that, given current average incomes in Western countries, it’s not worth baking your own minced meat pizza—better to have it delivered by bike courier.