Capitalism is about EFFICIENCY - Working towards maximum profit through maximum efficiency while creating the best possible product. When your competition bests you, you go back to the drawingboard and improve in order to stay alive. You improve your design, you streamline your process, you find a new untapped market or new uses for your technology. Because of your increased efficiency, you can cut your prices in order to grab market from your competitor. And then he does the same to you, beginning a cycle that ends with the best product at the best price, and a profit level that corporations are willing to accept. That is "traditional" capitalism. Needless to say, that is nearly dead.
The "New American" Capitalism is about *waste and hubris* and abusing monopoly power.
Build a skyscraper far too high out of pride, costing 6x what a more reasonably designed building would have cost. Raise prices on goods to compensate.
Buy the biggest gas-guzzling SUV possible, and get one for the missus rather than (heaven forbid!) carpool (City driving only - Point A to Point B).
Complain about increased gas prices because of EVERYBODY ELSE using too much gas.
Cheat on all taxes even though they're practically nothing, far less than the rest of the major industrialized nations with a lower quality of life. At the same time, complain about the crappy roads, lack of healthcare, and not enough "missile shields" to make you and your mansion feel safe at night.
Buy potentially tainted British Beef at 10 cents on the dollar and make a killing selling McBurgers to the Third World.
Don't price your product at a reasonable profit point compared to your cost of manufacturing; take polls on "what the market is willing to bear" and charge that price instead - thereby refusing to pass along any benefits of improved efficiency to your customers.
Start a diamond or gas cartel; consult with your buddies about how you can collectively hold society hostage through price fixing. As mentioned, holiday weekends and gas prices are a sure thing. Place your bets, you can't go wrong.
Software should "call home" and report what users have installed on their computer, and when they click "I agree" to their EULAs they surrender any rights whatsoever to the product they "own". Purposefully write incompatibilities into software to shut out competition. And don't fix the bugs - bug fixes will be a major advertising point for the next version, even as you introduce 50,000 NEW bugs.
In the old days, companies would win by producing the best product at the lowest price. Now, Microsoft lobbies the government to put legal restrictions on their competition rather than fixing their product. People are patenting completely ridiculous things, like catalogs on the internet, shopping on the internet, filling in forms on the internet, etc. Stuff that's been done for years is apparently all patentable if done "on the internet".
Some power companies (in Canada, I believe) whined about lost revenues during the blackout period, and are being *reimbursed* with taxpayer money for the 8 hours they didn't make any money. Is making money a guaranteed thing now?
Hmmm... Warren Buffett understands old capitalism, last I checked he'd been driving the same Buick for 10 years and living in a reasonable sized home according to his needs. If I buy a new computer now for $5,000, it actually cost me $50,000 when you account for the future earning potential that $5,000 had before you spent it. How much is your extravagant SUV costing you, if you put that money into an index fund for the next 20 years? A million dollars out of your pocket? That's an expensive vehicle.
SUV's aren't an efficient solution for 90% of the drivers, they are an example of hubris and a callous disregard for the environment your children will get cancer from by the time they are 35. It's a free country, and the companies will all love you if you become a consumer rather than a thinking man who seeks the most efficient solution to his problems.
Even if we're producers of goods, we are still consumers of goods. Every one of us is a consumer losing his rights. But in most cases, we don't eat our own dog food, so we support the producer's rights over the consumers rights to operate without legal or ethical restriction.
I'll quit now, I'm starting to sound like HarryTrader.
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