This week I was listening to Jason Stapleton's Podcast, title "The Problem with Modern Capitalism." I'd link to it, but his website isn't user friendly and I couldn't figure out how to find the link.
Anyhow, I was expecting a deep dive into the troubles of modern corporations, corporatism, consumerism, and other ails of our society caused by modern capitalism. What I got instead (before Matt came on and sounded like a complete conspiracy theory nutback), was the the problem with Modern Capitalism is that large corporations can use the government to avoid competing.
Now, this certainly is a problem with Modern Capitalism, and I don't want to downplay it, but I don't believe it's the problem, or even the biggest problem.
- Quick aside: The funniest part about the podcast to me was when Matt talked about how, "libertarians always like to blame the government and ignore the fact that corporations are the real problem," but Jason had literally just spent the entire episode blaming the government...
Anyhow, to get back on track, I don't believe that corporations using the government to avoid competition is the biggest problem with Modern Capitalism. The more time I spend thinking about it, the more my conviction grows that the biggest issue with our society today is us. The people who live in our society are almost all incredibly consumerist, childish, and lazy. I include myself in that estimation; I spend far more of my income on junk I don't really need than I'd care to admit.
The "low hanging fruit" of this issue is fairly obvious: average people like me (and probably anyone actually willing to read this) spend more of their income on things they could probably live without simply because someone was really good at convincing us to buy it. I'm sitting here typing this blog on a hand built computer that cost a few grand, on a beautifully backlit gaming keyboard, using a 1080p high definition 24" monitor. I could just as easily be typing this on my janky old Chromebook that cost me $125, but I like this setup better. I didn't need the expensive video doorbell, or the high-tech smoke alarm/carbon monoxide detector that cost $150 and talks to me in English when there's an alert, but it's certainly nicer looking and easier to manage than the $25 detectors from my local big box store. I definitely don't need to have most of the lights in my house controlled by listening devices scattered about my living space that also act as personal assistants and speakers in nearly every room of my house, all of which cost a decent sum on their own, let alone the extra amounts I paid for the wifi controlled switches and bulbs and plugs, but, hey, I like being able to ask the void to turn on my lights for me.
My wife and I own literally thousands of books, hundreds of DVDs/BluRay Discs, a few different computers, smart phones, and even a tablet or two. There are more bluetooth devices scattered around my house than I could ever possibly use. I certainly don't need the fancy place settings or special plates/bowls/cups/etc that we had to purchase a special storage cabinet for and only pull out for holiday dinners. I could live with only one television (or none) in my house, but it's nice to have two. My son has his own playground in our backyard, complete with swing, slide, and, coming soon, a jungle gym climbing dome (I still have to build that one).
The point I'm making is, I could have forgone a lot of these things, and I'm sure almost every person in the US right now can say the same thing. You, reading this right now, can probably look around the room you're in and identify half a dozen things you could easily live without. You likely have things in closets, drawers, and/or boxes in your house that you hardly ever, maybe never, use.
This is the problem with Modern Capitalism. My life is immeasurably better than the lives of people who lived a hundred, or even just fifty years ago. I have at my fingertips (or, now with just the sound of my voice) access to knowledge bases my grandparents couldn't even dream of, and mostly I just use it to turn lights on or off without having to move my butt off the couch while I watch videos of cats on the computer that I call a television.
I'm not saying this as a way of making a moral argument; I'm actually saying this is beyond a moral problem.
Let me tie this together. I hate my job. I didn't always, but recently I've been trying to work my way into management, and as such I've been paying more attention to the managers of my facility, and my company at large. I've been scrutinizing decisions they're making, and I'm seeing a pattern. You see, the people that run my company, much like the people that run most companies, are also lazy consumeristic children masquerading as responsible adults, much like I am. They might be able to buy bigger or more expensive toys, own larger houses and have nicer accessories, but, in the end, they also really only care about having nice stuff. They really want their nice stuff to be nicer than other people's stuff, too. You can see it in the stupid decisions they make. I stupidly decided to buy a brand new car this year. That hurts me and my family because now I'm going to be paying for that car for 5-7 years. The management in my company wants to make money to buy bigger and nicer things, so they're making decisions that hurt all of the people that work for them so they can make a bigger profit.
Example: head count. I hate the term head count. I work out of a facility that regularly ships $14M+ every month. Mine is one of four facilities in our division, and not the highest grossing facility in our division. We can't afford to bring in two more people to back fill positions that literally existed a year ago. We're making more money than we were a year ago, but when those people left last year, the company just...decided we were better off without those positions. The remaining employees in those two departments all now have much higher workloads, and the odds are fairly good that more people will be leaving soon because of that, but no one gives a crap because we're making more money now.
Downstream employees are also affected. One of those positions was a middle manager position responsible for 22 people. Those people now have to report to a higher level manager. Seems like a good idea: remove a middle manager and save the company $85-100k a year on a salary that only existed to be a go between for the lower level employees and the upper management staff. Those front line employees now report directly to an upper manager, who doesn't really have time to deal with them because it turns out upper managers have more responsibilities than dealing with the day-to-day issues of front line employees. Oh well. Guess we don't care if the turnover in that department (which used to retain employees for literally decades) is now so high that even the trainer is quitting because he can't train all of the new employees as fast as they're being brought on.
It's all so short sighted. That's the real problem with Modern Capitalism: no one is planning for next year, or five years from now, or twenty years from now. All we care about is this month, maybe this quarter, and stretch goal this year. That's it. As long as this month is more important than this month five years from now, we're going to continue this race to the bottom. I'll buy that extra gadget I probably don't need this month because I have the cash right now. I could have set aside that cash and saved it for when I need it for something important, but I'll deal with that expense when it happens and not worry about it until then. Companies can plan for the future and try to get a well trained staff capable of doing more than the business currently demands, but, hey, why waste money on extra people that aren't needed now when the business can run without them right now? Maybe we'll need to hire someone later, but until that's absolutely necessary there's no reason to pay someone to work less than 100% of their maximum effort every day.
The question is, though, how did we get here? That's the moral question, and what I'm still pondering. I hope to get closer to an answer someday.
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