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Blogs by Keith Rowley
Greed 4/6/2008 8:08:30 AM
There's no such thing as intrinsic value...
A couple of experiences have caused me some dismay of late, and starkly highlighted some of the inevitable consequences of an economy based on Greed (with a capital G).
The first of these experiences came about as I shopped for some meat for a stew and noticed that stewing meat, often bought by the poorer persons in our community, was almost the same price per kilo as top quality beef silver-side. Of course, the stewing beef was available in smaller portions, and thus targeted at those who cannot afford the 1.5kg joint I purchased and then chopped up for stew.
Why is this? Why would a few bones laden with fat and meat in equal measure be costed at the same price per kilo as a quality joint? The reason's pretty clear - put it in small packets and rip off the poor, thus maximising revenue on your product. Force the poor to pay your prices, but in 'affordable' packets.
All good MBA type practice - and never mind the poor - they're just another source of revenue and profit.
You see, in modern business, goods of all types, just like the dollar or pound or Rand in your pocket, have no intrinsic value. Everything is worth the top dollar value that someone will pay for it. Now I'm not a socialist; I merely believe that when pricing food for instance, we are determining the accessibility of life's most basic commodities and that there can be a 'fair profit' rather than a maximum profit; that there can be compassionate capitalism, if you wish. The idea of squeezing the last dollar out of poor people's food budget frankly makes me ill.
Another example of corporate greed hit the news this week with Amazon's appalling ultimatum to publishers such as iUniverse, Lulu and many, many others: Use our printing facilities or kiss goodbye to selling on Amazon.
At first, I didn't believe this, but it turned out to be another bottom feeding MBA-type profit maximisation scheme that will severely disadvantage small publishers and self published authors. My wife's comment was quite apposite: "why can't some businesses make profit ethically...why does greed take over so often?"
A good question. Anyway, I will most certainly never submit another book for printing by any company tied to Amazon's printer, BookSurge. Google 'BookSurge' and 'Quality' and you'll quickly see why - quite apart from my disgust at Amazon's lack of ethics.
I'm truly surprised that Amazon hasn't already been hauled in front of a monopolies' commission or at least been cited for unfair trading.
Truly disgusting.
And yes, I do have an MBA - but I do business ethically.
