I Am Seething !!! - Did You See 'There Goes The Neighborhood' On 60 Minutes ???

[Moostache]

50. But therein lies the rub....

The equation is NOT balanced in this example!

The "producer" who is not going to sell something at a loss, but would rather destroy it does so for a very simple reason - to allow the excess to be sold at cost or given away would lessen his profit % on the portion that he DOES sell. In other words, the thing being protected is not the product or its viability or even the greater viability of the "market"; but the profits of the owner and ONLY those profit margins at the expense of any and all other solutions are what must be protected.

Now, if those profits are razor thin and provide ONLY enough margin for the owner to reinvest in labor and goods to raise another crop (or make another batch or run the factory for another day) and eke out his own meager existence in the process, then fine, I will gladly accept your hypothesis and say that destruction of the excess goods is an inevitable by-product of the market system. But that's NOT the truth of the situation.

Owners do everything in their power to increase their take while decreasing their costs - the so-called free market principles that get waxed on philosophically by every talking head and pundit from whatever think tank or institute you prefer . They hire the cheapest labor - those willing to work the hardest for the least and without questioning the conditions of the workplace or the inherent dangers of the positions, they use the cheapest possible materials in their process (that still provide an acceptable level of quality in their end product without denting the precious profit margin too much) and they dispose of waste products in the cheapest manner possible. They also will "invest" untold percentages of their net incomes in lobbying efforts and in greasing politicians...why? Its certainly NOT to protect their margins or the other producers in their markets...no, they do this because with that money they are buying favorable laws and favorable treatment from the government and regulators to ensure they can continue doing as they please in pursuit of ever greater profit margins.

When the owner takes an excessive percentage of the overall profit - at the expense of ALL other considerations, including how to most humanely and advantageously handle production excesses - then the system itself is broken and does more harm than good. The REAL issue is that to give away or sell at a loss the excess goods takes away from PROFIT MARGIN and decreases the owner's percentage take. It does not recognize that the REAL take of the owner should be calculated on the TOTAL productivity and NOT on the NET or SOLD product! This is the same level of thinking that allows corporations to outsource their costs through "externalities" - the assigning of costs to the community that houses the corporation instead of to the bottom line of the corporation itself. These can be things such as waste disposal, clean up or infrastructure improvements and upkeep, but they are NOT factored into the overall cost equation and THAT is criminal!

If you produce 1,000 apples and can sell the first 500 at a profit of $1 per apple, but in the process have to throw away the other 500 apples to protect your profit, then you are a craven capitalist and cannot understand the inherent evil of such a system. You do not account for hidden costs that are translated as your "profits"....things like the wasted resources that are consumed to make your profitable apples - fertilizer, water, labor, pesticides, machinery. The truth is that the $500 profit from those first 500 apples is a PERSONAL gain, but the total loss of the other 500 apples is a SOCIETAL loss. We all eat those costs for you! The excess materials that you use to create the excess goods you destroy are REAL costs, they are just shifted from the private to the public and everyone is supposed to go on believing this is good forever.

IT. IS. NOT.

The REAL profit margin on your goods should be $0.50 per apple (OR LESS!!!) - $1 per apple for the first 500 and $0 per apple for the next 500 (maybe even a loss of $0.25 per apple) - the overall NET is what you are entitled to as the owner, but the system allows you to claim the profits of the first 500 without accounting for the total costs of the 1000 made!

Capitalism in its pure and unrestrained form is evil incarnate! Its adherents are incapable of recognizing this without saying things like "socialism", or "communism" or some other pejorative label that really does NOTHING to address their own culpability or shortcomings and instead relies on the fear of the uninformed to protect them and to deflect the argument and obfuscate the issue.

You show me a "businessman" who is worried about his excess productivity creating a drag on the market cost of his goods and I will show you a greedy son of a bitch that IS THE PROBLEM and not just part of the problem...