Capitalism

(One thing about flying - the overall experience might suck, but the views are great)



So! Capitalism. Yeah.



I have a glib little theory about capitalism, which is this: capitalism is a system for creating monopolies.



Here's the way I see it. Capitalism is based on competition. That's all
fine and dandy, but competition is an inherently unstable state.
This seems to suit certain industries (plumbing is the one I keep
thinking of), but in other areas, competitions have a tendency to be
won. And then monopolies are created. I'm guessing this is to do with
the costs of entry into an industry - where they re high, you have a
natural tendency for monopolies to evolve. This is natural, and
unsurprising. I'm pretty sure I was taught this stuff at school.



Ooo, look! Snowdonia!



Sorry, got distracted by the view. Anyway, what I find surprising
is the regularity with which competitions are being won right now.
Maybe it's me, but there seems to be a tendency at the moment towards
consolidation, and few starter companies muscling in. Maybe this is
just because mergers make headlines, while startups don't...



Ew. Big black smear in the sea suspiciously close to that power station. Grim.



...Er, what was I saying? Oh yeah.



Okay, forget all that. What I was trying say was very simple: just like
pure oxygen, pure capitalism kills. Well, duh. People win competitions.
Our society is inherently unstable, but at heart its basic unit is not
the dollar, but the human being. We're surrounded by lots of
imperfectly working
systems, which we patch constantly. If we occasionally lose sight of
this because of the complexity of the systems, then that shouldn't come
as any surprise. Complexity is rarely a good survival strategy.



So that's that. Gosh, that was easy.



I wrote this a few days ago - looking
back, it seems like the most incredibly disjointed nonsense! Never
mind, there's truth in there somewhere. Off you go, little blog entry,
and good luck in the wider world!