Mediocrity is a good thing in the context of commodity goods. To use the author's example, you CAN still get unique custom made shoes and still buy hand-grown h

Mediocrity is a good thing in the context of commodity goods. To use the author's example, you CAN still get unique custom made shoes and still buy hand-grown heirloom tomatoes at the farmer's market. The shoes will cost you $1,000+ and you'll pay a couple of bucks a tomato - prices which adjusted for inflation haven't changed since such practice was the only way people got shoes and tomatoes, and they got a lot less of them. Mediocrity and mass-production have made shoes and tomatoes accessible to everyone at far lower cost, and are not inherently bad.