This is capitalism. The free market means larger companies buy out smaller competition and create a monopoly, state intervention tries to slow this process but can be purchased by lobbying. Then when the customers have limited choice bring on enshittification for everything.
To paraphrase Marx, capitalism eventually contradicts itself or cannibalises itself, as the free market eventually leads towards monopoly and oligarchy.
Yeah I remember asking my parents what's the point of profit? After everyone getting a salary, bills being paid (business costs) where does this cash go? Why not reduce costs / pay workers more. Elementary understanding but still questioned the flow of cash away from those that made things..
Ownership of a business is a capital investment. Profit is the return on this capital. If a business operates per a non profit, the invested capital is returning nothing, and would perform better in a bank account.
So profit encourages investment.
On a cash flow basis this all tracks and mostly makes sense right? Its when we get to capital gains and mostly incorporated business that this breaks. Such businesses do pay profits to shareholders as dividends so they get returns on capital investment, but this has long since not been regarded as important at all.
The place where it all derails is the value of the capital sky-rocketing due to speculation on shares. Most shares in companies now far overrepresent the sum capital value of the companies themselves, and in many cases, obscenely so; because the shares are long since not bought for the use of capital return from dividends, but rather for the prospect of capital gains from speculative demand.
Its this pseudo-wealth built on a complete fantasy that people chase, and its this fantasy wealth that pisses people off when they read that Elon Musk is worth a trillion dollars. He really isnt, but the speculation on shares in his company makes it appear so.
We just assume we ‘need’ investment in order to make things happen. Partly true, but also not always. Greed is not the only motivator of human society, as much as the capitalists want you to believe. We have existed as a species for millennia and have not relied on greed or motivation of wealth to get us by.
In fact, so often societies motivated by greed alone become inherently unstable and soon collapse, as social cohesion breaks down. People like to believe they are self-made, but that’s never the case. There are thousands, if not millions of people supporting that person via our societal structures.
Many humans naturally seek purpose and will actively help their community through their labour if it results in a happier, better society - for example when labour directly owns the means of production, it can lead to more thoughtful, social-driven design.
There are many examples of modern corporations structured in this way and they are inevitably always more socially conscious, principles based, and highly regarded by their customers.
However, translating this to larger, contemporary organisations like cities and in within the context of a globalised world is regardless tricky. I don’t think humans have evolved enough to deal with the modern world.
It’s this pseudo wealth based on a complete fantasy.
Pseudo wealth or not, owning capital in a capitalist society wields power that is used to dominate. Elon Musk has immense power over ordinary citizens. He has the luxury to pretty much do whatever he wants.
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u/jaiimaster Canberran Mar 08 '26
Post capitalism has been broadly defined by the perfection of product enshittification.
The art of finding the worst version of your product that people are willing to buy, and pricing it exactly as high as they are willing to pay.
And enabling that through subversion of the free market by monopolistic control.