Our Free Market Enterprise System

I got my MBA in 1981, but the basic concepts of Business have not changed since 1776 when we won our independence from Great Britain.  Businesses are formed to fill a need in society and the demands of the consumer whether those demands are actually realized or not.  A business person either makes or buys something to which they add value and then sell that item to the consumer at a higher cost that the costs that the business have spent.  The more products that can be produced the less is the price to the consumer...  on a theoretical basis because some business owners are greedy.

ACTUALLY...   GREED by the supplier and the consumer is the foundation of our Free Market Enterprise System...  and, without GREED there would be NO economic growth.  Without economic growth, people would not be receiving salary or wage increases and companies would not have the money to invest in New Product Development.

SO, Greed in a necessary EVIL...

The downside of our Free Market Enterprise System is that there will always be a WEALTH GAP between the owners of the company and the managers and between the managers and the supervisors and between the supervisors and the workers.  Not all of these jobs are financially equal nor should there be, otherwise, management would no longer be willing to take the RISKS and/or RESPONSIBILITIES that is associated with their positions.

Another downside of our Free Market Enterprise System are those companies that sell stock in their company as a way of generating capital without borrowing from a bank.  In return for the purchase of stock, companies pay a quarterly dividend to those stockholders.  OVER THE YEARS, many companies have decided to make business decisions that favor stockholders rather than benefiting the company or its employees...  especially since some CEO's lose their jobs if stockholders don't get the dividend that they are anticipating.

Another downside of our Free Market Enterprise System is that fact that ALL COMPANIES want to eliminate their competition so that they can put whatever price they want to on a product.  They do this by buying our or merging with the competition until there is no competition.  This results in creating a MONOPOLY and the government must step in and keep this from happening.  Examples of near MONOPOLY companies are:

1. GOOGLE
2. FACEBOOK
3. AMAZON
4. MICROSOFT
5. APPLE