Sustaining Capitalism in a Finite World

Y E S !!!! AND WHAT HAPPENED TO COMPETITORS? WHAT WAS THE BUSINESS THREAT THEY FACED AND LOST?

Sheesh! You really no how to pretend you're the dullest knife in the drawer.

 

All the business needs to do is to make enough profit to remain viable. There's nothing that says it needs to constantly increase its profits over time.

 

Oh, sounds so easy. Maybe you haven't been around long enough to see such businesses fail. Whole towns across the country have seen "Mom&Pop" stores out-competed by large corporations and get shut down or bought out. Local "general stores", small corner grocery stores. ... even my brother-in-law who inherited a very successful jewelry findings shop tells me the large, cheap factory corporations are taking all his business even though the competition produces mostly cheap costume jewelry and he's very close to having to shut down because he can't make payroll and still make any profit.

Your words sound all nice and logical but the reality is somewhere else.

 

Thought provoking stuff. I ran some calculations on that. If you give each person a volume that is 2 feet square and 6 feet high, you could fit just 1.8 billion people in a cube 1.07km on each side. How do you get 4 times that many people in that cube? I guess you give small children just enough to fit them and likewise for everyone else.

All in all it strikes me as a pointless exercise. But I did it anyway.

I prefer my 2 acres.

 

So a WSDE would face these same challenges? Grow faster than the competition or go out of business? Look for ways to eliminate competition?

 

Thanks for admitting you were mistaken.

 

Thanks for putting words in my mouth.

You didn't answer the question. Does a WSDE face the same challenge as other businesses in that it must beat its competitors in order to survive?

 

Of course business wants to grow...but they are 100% always fending off competitors and fighting to maintain market share. Companies who ignore technology, business options, and get complacent can be caught off guard. Unless a company is producing a product which does not change much over the decades, they must pay attention to technology and be innovative both with their products and processes. Why does Sears have so many issues; my guess is poor management, a lack of branding, no longer unique, and each day they lose more and more market share. They will never get it back once the slide starts...competitors are vicious...

 

A problem with your premise here is in my town we have a nickname for the Ace Hardware store...we call it 'the bank' because when you go in there you leave all of your money! They have the highest prices and it's based on 'opportunity sales' because larger stores are 15 miles away. Ace Hardware has done nothing to compete with Home Depot and others...

 

Right. I have an Ace Hardware in my town and there's one in the city not far from a Home Depot, yet Ace charges much more, sometimes 50% more, than Home Depot. It's a hardware convenience store, and they stock some things you have a hard time finding at Home Depot and elsewhere.

And yet the majority has to grow or fail.

 

Not really. Any enterprise just needs to be profitable in order to survive. It doesn't need to grow ad infinitum.

 

Yes there are exceptions. I said the majority. And part of that has to do with debt. A corporation borrows money to finance upgrades but they need to pay dividends and keep stock rising so the CEO's options keep increasing in value. So they seek greater sales, profit, and markets. There are numerous reasons that most work to grow. This is one of them.

 

Yes, but the point is that no enterprise is forced to grow. It's a choice.

 

No, since the prime directive is to make a profit, corporations tend to seek market domination or at least growth. The fact that most do means it is important. Necessary? Maybe not, but it's the rule. Go find me a financial report that says it was a good year and sales, profits, and market share all remained stable and unchanged.

 

It's a choice to become a publicly traded C corporation. No business is forced to do so. Any business can choose to achieve profitability and stop growing at that point.

 

At this point you are not attempting to refute what I said, so I'll move along.

 

Of course I'm refuting what you said. You said:

And the majority doesn't have to grow or have. It's their choice. They could choose to achieve profitability and hold growth at that level.

 

So you provide for a constant growth. LOL!!!!

 

You're hilarious.

And the majority doesn't have to grow or have. It's their choice. They could choose to achieve profitability and hold profits at that level.

 

"....center left similar to Bernie Sanders. I am in favor of capitalism....." LOL, clearly a case of confusion.

 

And most of them so choose, because a financial statement that shows no growth looks bad.

 

Right. They don't have to grow or face failure. They choose that. They could choose not to grow, as long as they remain profitable.

 

We've been over this enough times and I cited actual cases of the business that grew eating up the one that didn't. Your argument is like one over what the meaning of "is" is.

 

I don't buy the idea that mom-pop stores are run out of business by larger corporate stores. Just because McDonald's opens a restaurant in an area does not mean all other restaurants are going to suffer. However, mom-pop stores who cling to the past, do nothing with technology or to evolve their businesses, or cannot create a niche for themselves...well...they can be in trouble...

 

Their Ace Hardware is a good example...they will not grow and all they care about is sustainable profits...