That is not the true capitalist ideal. Much of what goes on in business today is not capitalist driven, it is greed driven.Originally posted by Biggles@31 March 2004 - 19:46
The ideal, therefore, is for all ones competitors to pay high domestic salaries and for ones own company to have outsourced to a village in Tibet. Thus the market will be cash rich and ones product will be the most cost competitive (if perhaps smelling somewhat of Yak).
If you take a look back to some of your great American capitalists, that is the men who defined modern capitalism, their aim was to sell products that increased the quality of life to such an extent that their customers were financially comfortable enough to continue buying their products.
Henry Ford for example paid his workers more than he had to, for the simple reason that by having well paid employees and an efficient production process (run by those employees) every one of the people who worked at Ford were able to buy the cars they made, which meant he would be able to sell that many more cars.
A true capitalist realizes that with the enormous power they have (money) they have to be responsible membrs of the community. Bill Gates is one of the few rich people now who is following the ideal, by giving away computers to kids who will be relying on them for the rest of their lives, and donating money to other worthy causes.
Names like the Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation will always be synonymous with great weath, built on the American Dream, and still do great works for the community years after their founders have passed away.
So if you have a plan to become filthy rich which does not include giving your money away to create a better world, you're not a capitalist, you're just f*cking greedy.
Bookmarks