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Journal by Gaaark
I have nothing against capitalism: what we seem to have nowadays is Corruptism.
Corruptism is the collecting of wealth no matter who or what.
Need another dollar? Bribe a politician to make the laws favour corporations over people.
Need ANOTHER dollar? Cut wages and hours.
Need ANOTHER dollar? Layoffs.
It use to be that employers made, what, 400X what their employees made? Now an employee has to work 2-3 jobs just to live while the 'boss' feeds the pork to make ONE MORE DOLLAR!
A little more kindness would see us in a better world.
I'd like to see politicians start thinking of the people who voted for them.
Lets get back to basic Capitalism: Corruptism is not working.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
"By the time they had diminished from 50 to 8, the other dwarves began
to suspect "Hungry."
-- a Larson cartoon
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 13 2018, @02:14AM (5 children)
This is not a problem with capitalism.
Market pressures determine the costs of labor and, if a company could be more profitable with fewer workers and lower pay, then why should they pay more unless they determine it is in their interest?
Politicians are driven by incentives, just like everyone else.
If people keep voting for them, despite the perceived corruption, then why should they change their behavior?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Thursday December 13 2018, @02:26AM (4 children)
"Market pressures determine the costs of labor and, if a company could be more profitable with fewer workers and lower pay, then why should they pay more unless they determine it is in their interest?"
Well, see, there used to be something called competition and some companies competed by hiring good people at decent wages and competed with customer service.
Now, it's all mergers which eliminates competition: now companies can just say "Fuck customer service, customers can wait in line...where else are they going to shop?"
Every merger eliminates one more competitor. Soon we will have MegaCorp and they'll have one person running the whole thing because "Fuck you, I got ONE MORE FUCKING DOLLAR!"
They should be disallowing mergers and creating competition: instead, you have lobbyists, pork and mergers.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 13 2018, @03:14AM (3 children)
Mergers happen when Company A believes it can make more money running Company B than Company B can, so Company B sells for more than they think they're worth. If merged Company AB fails to exploit an opportunity (e.g. customer service), then a new entrant can compete for that market share.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday December 13 2018, @03:38AM (2 children)
Ideally, yes. Lately, no. Most high-profile mergers in my lifetime have been of the "let's buy out the competition so we don't have to work so hard and can charge more" variety.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 13 2018, @12:38PM (1 child)
At the risk of sounding like the "but "real" communism has never been tried" crowd, that isn't a long term problem of capitalism. There will always be industries with large barriers to entry, even in the absence of regulatory barriers, that disallow perfect competition and only reach a local maximum.
The local maximum that priorities cost over service is a result of true consumer preferences. People may say that they value other things (e.g. good customer service, US production, ability to repair, reliability, etc.), but if they don't care enough to pay for those features then they've shown their true preference. That's part of the reason why everyone says they don't like WalMart, but are still willing to buy an imported American flag from there just to save a dollar.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday December 13 2018, @01:06PM
Yeah, I wasn't saying that was a problem with capitalism. I was saying it was a problem with the US.
I really don't get people who say they don't like WalMart but shop there either. It's obviously untrue if they keep shopping there. Personally, I dig the hell out of it and I'm not ashamed to say so. When they have adequate prices for an adequate product and provide adequate service, I'm tickled pink to give them my money. When they don't, I go elsewhere and don't begrudge them. That's how they want to do business and how they do business is their business. Mine is choosing who I do business with.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.