PureX
Veteran Member
I have noted on a few occasions that one of the most basic flaws of "free market" economics is that it becomes all about profits, at the expense of pretty much everything else.
For example: we build houses in this country (The United States) to make money (profits) rather than for people to live in. And as a result, our houses are generally over-sized, over-priced, and poorly made. Big, expensive, and shoddily build houses create the biggest profits, so that's what we build. And we don't bother to consider their actual livability, or their efficiency down road, for the people who do end up living in them.
In fact, this whole idea of looking "down the road" for future quality of life pretty much flies out the window in a free market economy. Everything is about fast and immediate profitability, and nobody is looking into the future to see what the effects of this kind of economic behavior is having on them, and will likely have on succeeding generations. Mostly, no one cares. We're all too worried about getting whatever we can get out of today.
The end result, it seems to me, is an economic "system" that ends up being our master, rather than our servant. The short-sighted greed of one person forces everyone around him to play the same game just to keep up. All decisions get made based on immediate profits, rather then on the well-being of the people involved in the enterprise. And as a result, we all become enslaved by the profiteering. And the quality of our lives are diminished. At least of many of our lives. The profiteers are doing fine. But everyone else becomes their servant.
Our freedom is lost to the profiteering of a few, and we all end up serving the "system" just to get by.
I say that it's time for people to wake up and stop serving the economy as though it were our god. Commerce should serve us, not the other way around. Commerce that does not serve the well being of everyone involved should be banned, as it's not commerce at all, but exploitation disguised as commerce. Profiteering should not be the goal of a business enterprise. The goal should be raising the quality of life for everyone involved. We need a new business manifesto; a commercial declaration of just what is and will be considered good business practice, and what will not be acceptable. We need to define the difference between commerce and exploitation once and for all, and ban the latter. It's time we put commerce in it's place, as our servant, where it belongs!
For example: we build houses in this country (The United States) to make money (profits) rather than for people to live in. And as a result, our houses are generally over-sized, over-priced, and poorly made. Big, expensive, and shoddily build houses create the biggest profits, so that's what we build. And we don't bother to consider their actual livability, or their efficiency down road, for the people who do end up living in them.
In fact, this whole idea of looking "down the road" for future quality of life pretty much flies out the window in a free market economy. Everything is about fast and immediate profitability, and nobody is looking into the future to see what the effects of this kind of economic behavior is having on them, and will likely have on succeeding generations. Mostly, no one cares. We're all too worried about getting whatever we can get out of today.
The end result, it seems to me, is an economic "system" that ends up being our master, rather than our servant. The short-sighted greed of one person forces everyone around him to play the same game just to keep up. All decisions get made based on immediate profits, rather then on the well-being of the people involved in the enterprise. And as a result, we all become enslaved by the profiteering. And the quality of our lives are diminished. At least of many of our lives. The profiteers are doing fine. But everyone else becomes their servant.
Our freedom is lost to the profiteering of a few, and we all end up serving the "system" just to get by.
I say that it's time for people to wake up and stop serving the economy as though it were our god. Commerce should serve us, not the other way around. Commerce that does not serve the well being of everyone involved should be banned, as it's not commerce at all, but exploitation disguised as commerce. Profiteering should not be the goal of a business enterprise. The goal should be raising the quality of life for everyone involved. We need a new business manifesto; a commercial declaration of just what is and will be considered good business practice, and what will not be acceptable. We need to define the difference between commerce and exploitation once and for all, and ban the latter. It's time we put commerce in it's place, as our servant, where it belongs!