Comment by xattt
4 years ago
A lot of people wish to stumble across something valuable without the original owner knowing the actual value of it. This is the underpinning of modern capitalism.
4 years ago
A lot of people wish to stumble across something valuable without the original owner knowing the actual value of it. This is the underpinning of modern capitalism.
I view capitalism differently. I picture a neighborhood of elderly people who aren't able to shovel their driveways and walkways when it snows. And an industrious young person nearby who shovels their driveways and walkways for them for a modest fee.
He does such a good job that word of his good service spreads and he wants to expand by buying a truck with a plow. But he doesn't have the money so he goes to a bank and borrows the money. He's able to expand his enterprise dramatically.
He's happy. His customers are happy. The bank is happy. Society is better off, isn't it? There are of course problems with capitalism which is where regulation comes in. But it isn't rotten to the core.
It's a beautiful story but it's just the beginning. When he expands his enterprise by buying more and more trucks and hiring more people he then squashes all competition with price dumping, lobbying or just buys competing companies/individuals.
At the latest when he has a monopoly the company's services will deteriorate and the prices will rise. The customers won't be happy anymore. Also he will scatter so much salt on the roads that the ground water gets polluted. You see where I am going?
Of course it doesn't need to go this way but usually it does.
Serious question - what percentage of businesses do you think reach the nightmare scenario you've painted? You said that "usually it does" go that way. That seems to mean more than half - is that seriously your opinion of the 10.75 million companies that are in the United States?
I owned a computer service company for five years. I never did any of the things that you mentioned. All of my customers were small businesses and they never did anything you mentioned. You seem to be basing your opinion on the 1%.
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The young man then goes on to buy a politician for a paltry sum so the laws allow him to employ people for a pittance or in dangerous conditions.
In the original fairy tale the young man would go on to bribe an ice witch to curse the land with everlasting winter for maximum profit.
Another story involves people living in a community, well connected, aware of one another, mutually respectful and considerate.
Younger people shovel ways so the older people do not fall and get hurt.
One day, a few of those younger people have an idea and get their start from that community, who helps fund, perhaps some members sharing space, equipment, etc...
Another story has the old people pay the homeless just enough money to get a meal to shovel their driveway, then shut them out in the cold because, you know, the sanctity of private property means you have to shiver in the cold
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As a teen I would scour local thrift stores for old 8 and 16-bit computers, play with them for a bit, then sell them off for two or three times the price. That would allow me to plow more money into old computers, either to build up savings or justify the few models I wanted to keep.
People would inevitably offer me more because they were worth more (examples: a very old TRS-80 or musicians who still used the Atari ST). More often than not, I declined. I was more interested in seeing them used and not interested in turning my hobby into a business. For the most part, everyone was happy.
The entrepreneur in your example is a wage-laborer. Thats really not what people mean when they talk about "capitalism"
>entrepreneur
>wave-laborer
These terms are mutually exclusive.
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> This is the underpinning of modern capitalism.
How so?
Crudely I'm guessing, information asymmetry. Which is usually considered a market failure, but is very common, perhaps even an "underpinning".
Value extraction.