Sneakylong all these economic theories totally miss one residing factor in all (most) successful businesses. Innovation and creativity.
Apple was sluggish in a overly saturated computer market until Steve Jobs came back and started creating the iPhone, iPod, IPad, etc. All of a sudden Apple's growth exploded and they became one of the largest corporation in the world. But now that Jobs is dead, I predict Apple will slowly over time start to deteriorate and eventually disappear. Without those new products Apple will have no where to go and eventually go bankrupt.
Google took the search engine and made is fashionable and became a verb. They figured out how to make money from it too - LOTS of money. But it took two geniuses to create the product and the model that most other internet brands are copying to some extent. As long as Larry Page and Sergey Brin remain motivated and continue to create new ways of expanding their business Google will continue to be a beast.
Athletes and entertainers make millions of dollars a year, based on nothing more than their talents. But there's only one LeBron James, or Tom Brady. They do something very few others can do. Supply and demand basically. So little supply, so the demand dictates what they generate in revenue. It works the same in golf. While sports are the most competitive things out there, when you become an elite athlete you are essentially creating a product no one else can. Tiger Woods did things no other golfer ever has, and the purses on the PGA Tour tripled during is tenure as the world's most dominant golfer. We have some new young talent out there, but it remains to be seen if Tiger's start power can be duplicated by others. Same thing with movie stars. There's only one Tom Hanks, or Matt Damon. You can't just throw someone else into a movie in their roles and expect the same magic or results. They have extreme talent that no one else has.
Economics in America, as long as we remain a (relatively) free capitalistic society will dictate that anyone who wants to can create their own wealth. Come up with the next big thing, and BOOM, you are instantly rich. That wealth wasn't stolen from poor people, or people less fortunate. Apple didn't steal your money; you bought their product. Corporations only exist so long as they offer something that millions of people want.
Proctor and Gamble continues to offer a wide variety of household items that millions of Americans need and want. They didn't steal people's money to become huge, they sold a product that people wanted and bought.
WalMart didn't become this large over night. They spent decades selling products people wanted and needed, at a cost cheaper than their competitors could provide it at. They didn't steal people's money. People willingly and voluntarily patronize WalMart. Now, if enough people get pissed off at WalMart they can choose to shop somewhere else. No one puts a gun to your head to make you shop there though.
Believe it or not, this works the same with oil companies, albeit in a much more restricted way. You buy a car, and choose to drive it. You need gas to fill up your tank. So you buy gasoline, that seemingly has a fixed price that you don't have any control over. But actually you do. If gas becomes so expensive as to be unaffordable, I can go down to WalMart and buy myself a 10 speed bicycle and ride it to and from work every day. I can sell my car and tell the oil companies to take their product and shove it up their ass. Realistic? You tell me. When I went through divorce I got rid of my cars, because I had to choose between paying for day care, and a car payment. I put my daughter on the back of a 10 speed and rode my bike to and from work every day.
Corporations are nothing more than groups of people deciding how and where to sell products. If the corporation because "greedy", and enough people see the greed, then you can stop buying that corporation's product. This works in pretty much all industries. So this argument about greedy corporations is pure garbage in my humble opinion. YOU choose to support corporations by buying their products. Don't like how they do business? Then guess what, stop supporting the corporation. One person won't make a difference you say? Fine, get a group of 100, 1,000 or 10,000 people to organize against said corporation and boycott it. It's honestly not a magic formula, and we still have the opportunities and choices to affect change in our society, especially economic ones.
But you choose to blame these same companies that supply you with all the products that you run your life around. Again, no one told you to support these corporations. And yes, if you don't like your electric bill, go off the grid and tell the electric company to go screw themselves. No one is forcing you to turn the lights on at your house. There ARE other ways to live if you aren't happy with your current circumstances.
YOU made the choice, YOU bought the product, and YOU accepted the job making whatever wage you are making. NO ONE is putting a gun to your head forcing you to stay in your job at whatever wage you are bitching about. Don't like the way your company does things? Go out there and start your own business and compete against them. People do this every day. It's called entrepreneurship.
And you even mentioned unions. I laugh at this argument. Unions are killing themselves by their own greed. I've lost count of the number of unions who bargained for better wages for their members from a corporation, but eventually forced the corporation into bankruptcy. I grew up with my Dad working in the airline industry. Remember Eastern, Pan Am, and National Airlines? Yeah? Why aren't they around anymore? Labor unions that got greedy and felt that the $120,000 that pilots were making for working 10 hours a month wasn't enough. Flight attendants weren't happy making $20 an hour, and wanted $25, all for doing nothing more than smiling and serving coffee and peanuts to customers stuck on an airplane at 35,000 feet for a couple of hours.
Just one industry, and one example, but it works everywhere. While you bitch about corporations being greedy I've just shown you several examples of where employees and unions have become beyond greedy. Go look up the salaries of the leaders of the Teamsters and ask yourself if those guys are worth what they are making just to run a Union. Go look and see what the leaders of some of the Teachers Unions are making. Now if you want to talk about greed, let's start there. Simply absurd how you can twist any argument to suit your worldview. Yours and mine are definitely 180 degrees different.
