This is one of the supposed benefits of the free market. If left alone, under normal conditions, what’s supposed to happen is that badly ran, uncompetitive firms end up showing themselves the door, making room for new market competitors who may not be so badly managed. Don’t fucking save them, especially don’t advocate for saving them if you claim to love free markets.
The problem with free markets is they are incredibly unstable and create booms and busts and people don’t like this so we get the worst of all worlds which is unfettered capitalism and no competition or failure weeding out poorly managed companies. Maybe free markets are just a shitty ideal?
Maybe free markets are just a shitty ideal?
Yes. The answer to that question is yes. Free market capitalism encourages cutthroat competition in which the only factor in any decision-making process is maximizing profits. Safety isn’t a factor. Employee well-being isn’t a factor. National security isn’t a factor. The economy at large isn’t a factor. Long term investments aren’t even a factor. Line go up this quarter equals good quarter. Regulations ensure mandatory minimums for societal prosperity.
Until corporations realise they can cheat and change the game by bribing politicians to tip the scales in their favour.
Business exists only for one thing; exploiting systems, even if that means meta-exploitation, since that’s the highest form of exploitation, and the inevitable endgame.
free markets are a shitty idea, but ive never seen one in real life before.
I think America would actually benefit from switching to a free market economy, instead of our current bullshit where our politicans are too spineless to tell companies like Boeing “sucks to suck” when they ask for yet another handout instead of doing any real work
Agreed, but the big players have their hands tied up in Congress and the military so much that it’s not gonna happen.
Then they should be nationalized, because they’ve already got the benefits, but none of the downsides, while the public get none of the benefits, and all of the downsides… At this point “too big to fail” are essentially critical government infrastructure setup by wealthy criminals to steal directly from tax payers.
Nationalizing industries? In America? We don’t do that here, friend. We give corporations massive bailouts and forgive all felonies.
we dont have a free market. We have what i can only describe as Inverse Socialism
its socialism for the wealthy and the corporations, and “free market” for everyone else
this is part of the reason why theft of property from the rich, or violence against them, is not morally wrong.
They get tax breaks that we all pay for, and they influence policies that help themselves while killing us.
You cant steal what you already paid for, and its not murder when its self defense
It is, afaik, the literal, actual, unironic definition of the fascist economic model. Basically, the public sector only really exists in the form of “private” companies that are tightly coupled to the government.
thats what they taught us about communist Russia when i was in highschool
Our economics class learned that their “public” sector was a mix of private companies acting as both private citizens AND government agencies.
And my teacher was like “imagine if all the roads and utilities and infrastructure for the country was run by private, FOR PROFIT businesses that benefit from laws written for citizens, AND from laws written for corporations but are not bound by either”
20 years later i realize thats how its been here the whole time
if your business requires government funding in order to function, your business should be a government agency instead of a business
Look I’m fine if the govt wants to say a particular corporation is too big to fail. But trying to let that company remain private is not how too big to fail works. If you want a bailout, the govt owns your company, and the govt is obliged to maintain ownership for as long as it’s deemed too big to fail…e.g. critical to national interests.
Nationalise it if it’s too big to fail but can no longer operate as a public company.
Privatize the profits and socialize the losses.
Fuck Boeing and Jim Cramer, especially.
Capitalists: Under capitalism inefficient companies fail, and this is good.
Also capitalists: Save Boeing!!!11oneone
Boeing isn’t the best example of a capitalist enterprise. It’s too big to fail. The US government is too dependent on it and the country depends on Boeing strategically.
Boeing is basically a pseudo-state corporation.
It’s too big to fail.
Then FTC has some work to do. Or nationalize.
What would the FTC do? Boeing builds aircraft for the US military. Breaking up the company or allowing it to fail jeopardizes the US’s strategic interests.
Nationalization is an option but the political climate in the US is extremely hostile to that option. Instead what I expect will happen is a massive bailout and a forced reorganization of management to fix all the issues. The government will dictate the changes the company needs to make but otherwise will remain hands off. This is how the US has done these things in the past.
What would the FTC do?
Break it up. So it won’t be “too big”.
Breaking up the company or allowing it to fail jeopardizes the US’s strategic interests.
Ah. So you see the problem with capitalism.
The government will dictate the changes the company needs to make
And what will happen if nothing changes? Another bailout?
Ah. So you see the problem with capitalism.
It’s a double-edged sword. Boeing developed these aircraft. They’ve given the US the military advantage they’ve enjoyed since the Second World War.
Boeing developed the aircraft with taxpayer money, they build the aircraft with taxpayer money, and then they get a ton of money as profits from our taxpayer money, and lastly we bail them out with our taxpayer money.
*Engieneers hired by Boeing
As a big fan of capitalism - go die Boeing. It’s not the taxpayers job to bail you out because of stupid decision you made.
It’s not the taxpayers job to bail you out
It literally is. That’s the only way privatization works.
If the only reason you exist is because you’re too big to fail, maybe you shouldn’t exist?
It’s not the only reason Boeing exists. That’s the problem. Airframe manufacturing is a critical infrastructure componemt for the nation’s airline mass transit network. And there are only two companies in the world that operate at the scale necessary to support the volume of flights.
Boeing can’t fail any more than ATT or Citibank can be allowed to fail.
Maybe boeing needs to die so it can be replaced with something that does a better job.
True. Airbus has had problems in the past and they fixed them without avoiding them.
I’m so sick of companies pissing away all of their profit and money to make rich people richer then when the smallest problem hits it is our problem. We pay. Fuck them.
Looking at this (below) with some super sloppy math they have made in the last ten years 25 billion in profits and 5 billion in losses totally 20 billion in profits (give or take as my interest in totalling this accurately is zero). The fact that they used their money irresponsibly and didn’t say for a raining day, or it’s raining planes day, is not the tax payers that need to save them. I’m in my mid 30s, you know how many times I’ve seen extremely profitable and successful “too big to fail” businesses bailed out. Fuck the fucking fuckers and anyone who trys and correct my math.
https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BA/boeing/gross-profit
Can’t correct that which is correct. Shine on, fam!
Capitalism as it is supposedly “intended” say whuuuut? O.O /s
Solidarity to all the workers at Boeing!
Capitalism in on itself isn’t bad, it can be the most efficient system for everyone to grow.
However
You need to have a solid set or rules in place that makes it work well for everyone. No monopolies, for (a simple) example, bit also if a small company does, there is bankruptcy, the the same needs to apply for a mega corporation. If a corporation is too big to fail, and require bail out then at least sack and replace the entire C suite, and upper management, no golden parachutes, no bonuses. Hell, if the company is so important that govt need to step in with billions, hold C suit personally responsible. If I fucked up and my company goed bankrupt, I can lose my house, why should a CEO get a bonus for doing the same thing but 100.000 times bigger and worse?
