According to Wikipedia, Ted Geisel authored over 60 children\u2019s books.\u00a0 According to the stack of books that once adorned the shelves in my own children\u2019s room, we owned nearly all of them.\u00a0 There\u2019s no denying that Dr. Seuss was a common fixture for many when learning to read.\u00a0 There\u2019s also no denying that as many of us transitioned to adulthood, our childhood love of the perennial favorites The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, Fox in Socks, <\/em>and Horton Hears a Who! <\/em>came along for the ride (not to mention our yearly need to see the Grinch in the weeks leading up to Christmas).\u00a0 Seuss\u2019 work resulted in numerous movies, TV shows, and related media (including a hilarious reading of Green Eggs and Ham<\/em> by Jesse Jackson on Saturday Night Live).\u00a0 Dr. Seuss wove himself and his eccentrically drawn characters into the fabric of American life (but just how deeply will be discussed below).<\/p>\n It is against this backdrop that a controversy erupted early in March when the publisher, Dr. Seuss Enterprises, announced that they would no longer be printing the following 6 titles:<\/p>\n This sparked a political firestorm on both sides of the spectrum, but the controversy lasted far shorter than the publishers most likely had hoped.\u00a0 But before arguing the underlying facts that support this, admittedly, provocative conclusion, let\u2019s look at what the politics had to say in order to better understand how their emotional response provided cover for what was most assuredly a savvy economic move on the part of Dr. Seuss Enterprises.<\/p>\n According to Yahoo! News in a piece they published on March 2nd<\/sup> entitled Six Dr. Seuss Books to Stop Being Published Due to Racist Imagery: 'Hurtful and Wrong'<\/em><\/a>, Dr. Seuss Enterprises has decided to stop publishing the list of 6 books by the late author because of \u201cracist and insensitive imagery.\u201d\u00a0 The article went on to quote the publisher saying that the titles in question:<\/p>\n Newsweek, in their short piece entitled Banned Seuss Site Emerges to Promote Dr. Seuss' Six Canceled Books<\/a>, cites a 2019 study published in Research on Diversity in Youth Literature, which concluded that<\/p>\n According to Newsweek, the study describes anti-Blackness as discrimination, opposition or hostility against Blackness and Black people.<\/p>\n On the other side of the political spectrum, local radio commentators complained about cancel culture, and wondered how the cancel culture could accuse the man who put environmentalism front and center in The Lorax<\/em>, and tolerance despite outward differences as the central theme in The Sneetches<\/em>, of being racist.<\/p>\n Of all the media outlets, the NY times, in its piece entitled Dr. Seuss Books Are Pulled, and a \u2018Cancel Culture\u2019 Controversy Erupts<\/em><\/a>, comes closest to identifying what was really going on.\u00a0 After stating that:<\/p>\n the Times finally points out to its readership that<\/p>\n [Seuss\u2019 c]lassic children\u2019s books are perennial best sellers and an important revenue stream for publishers. Last year, more than 338,000 copies of \u201cGreen Eggs and Ham\u201d were sold across the United States, according to NPD BookScan, which tracks the sale of physical books at most retailers. \u201cOne Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish\u201d sold more than 311,000 copies, and \u201cOh, the Places You\u2019ll Go!\u201d \u2014 always popular as a high school graduation gift \u2014 sold more than 513,000 copies.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street,\u201d one of the six books pulled by the estate, sold about 5,000 copies last year, according to BookScan. \u201cMcElligot\u2019s Pool\u201d and \u201cThe Cat\u2019s Quizzer\u201d haven\u2019t sold in years through the retailers BookScan tracks. Putting the merits of the books aside, removing \u201cGreen Eggs and Ham\u201d would be a completely different business proposition from doing away with new printings of \u201cMcElligot\u2019s Pool.<\/p><\/div>\n And there you have it: the decision by Dr. Seuss Enterprises (DSE) was nothing more than a clever marketing ploy. \u00a0DSE could have simply stopped printing underselling books, but they knew that a perceived ban would trigger responses from both sides generating loads of free publicity.\u00a0 They timed their announcement to coincide with National Reading Day<\/a>, which is March 2nd<\/sup>, a date previously chosen to coincide with Ted Geisel\u2019s own birthday.<\/p>\n And their ploy worked like a charm.\u00a0 The price of the \u2018forbidden fruit\u2019 rose so fast on Ebay that, as CBR notes in its article entitled 'Banned' Dr. Seuss Books Delisted on eBay After Selling for Thousands<\/a>,<\/p>\n The prices on eBay\u00a0were becoming exorbitant<\/a>, with collections of all six books going for upwards of $5,000. That changed late Wednesday into Thursday as eBay delisted the six books from the auction\/online sales website.<\/p>\n One seller who had sold a copy of one of the discontinued books received an e-mail from eBay pointing out that the site would not allow the book to be sold because of its \"offensive materials policy,\" explaining that \u201cDr. Seuss Enterprises has stopped publication of this book due to its negative portrayal of some ethnicities. As a courtesy, we have ended your item and refunded your selling fees, and as long as you do not relist the item, there will be no negative impact to your account.\n<\/p><\/div>\n The only thing lacking in DSE\u2019s plan was the ability to control the duration that a fickle and easily-distracted public either would stay outraged by \u2018cancel culture\u2019 run amok or would remain bitter towards perceived injustice.\u00a0 The controversy ended far too quickly to likely sustain an increased jump in sales but that doesn\u2019t really matter.\u00a0 What does matter is that the roots of the controversy were planted firmly in the bedrock of economic analysis and not in the political winds that blow this way and that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Human behavior.\u00a0 There is simply no way to avoid thinking about human behavior when talking about either politics or economics.\u00a0 The political side makes assumptions and then argues about what... 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