Episode 633: The Birth And Death Of The Price Tag

Listen 16:31

• Playlist
• Download
• Embed Embed Close embed modal iframe src="http://www.npr.org/player/embed/415287577/415296857" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no"> ">
• Transcript

Save this episode to Stitcher: Listen to this later on Stitcher Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

We tend to think of price as innate. A can of Coke is red. It's 12 ounces. It costs a dollar. The price doesn't go up or down when we're thirsty. It stays fixed.

People didn't used to think about prices this way. The price tag wasn't even invented until the 19th century; for most of human history, we haggled.

Today on the show, the life and death of the price tag.

Music: The Losers' "Six Weeks to Live" and Belle and Sebastian's "For The Price Of A Cup Of Tea." Find us: Twitter/ Facebook/ Spotify/ Tumblr.

Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.