Three C words: Capitalism, Consumerism and Costco

[pvn]

@Jalfrezi

making socks cheaper for the people who want them but often don’t need them at the cost of lower wages for the people involved in their manufacture and distribution

1. people don’t need socks??? that’s just like, your opinion, man

2. where is it written than lowering wages is the only way to make socks cheaper?

[pvn]

@zarapochka

Johnny means that costco is not cool because they put pressure on sock suppliers to get the socks from them as cheap as possible. The goal of this action is to get as many customers as possible to run to costco and to buy new socks instead of mending their old socks. The result is that sock suppliers put more pressure on the weakest part in the chain, their workers.

the 2nd and 3rd sentences do not follow from the 1st.

[Jalfrezi]

@pvn

@Jalfrezi

making socks cheaper for the people who want them but often don’t need them at the cost of lower wages for the people involved in their manufacture and distribution

1. people don’t need socks??? that’s just like, your opinion, man

2. where is it written than lowering wages is the only way to make socks cheaper?

1. Many socks are bought that aren’t necessary (and many thrown away that needn’t be). Agree/disagree?

2. Lowering wages is one of a limited number of ways in which companies often reduce costs. Agree/disagree?

[pvn]

@microbet

You rewind the tape and tell me that your first set of posts here didn’t just make the assumption that it’s theoretically impossible for this type of consumerism, competition, and monopolism that drives prices down for consumers to be anything other than good.

given the overwhelming track record of productivity improvements over the course of human history, I am OK with assuming that new productivity improvements having similar effects. I won’t say that it is theoretically impossible for any particular improvement in productivity to be bad, but you’re going to have to do something more than “well it’s possible everyone is just going to burn all their socks”

[pvn]

@Jalfrezi

1. Many socks are bought that aren’t necessary (and many thrown away that needn’t be). Agree/disagree?
2. Lowering wages is one of a limited number of ways in which companies often reduce costs. Agree/disagree?

1. yes

2. yes

[Aofrantic]

Very, very few companies have to sell at Costco. They do so because it is profitable. It is not the only game in any town.

[Jalfrezi]

@pvn

@Jalfrezi

1. Many socks are bought that aren’t necessary (and many thrown away that needn’t be). Agree/disagree?
2. Lowering wages is one of a limited number of ways in which companies often reduce costs. Agree/disagree?

1. yes

2. yes

1. Buying socks unnecessarily wastes energy and results in larger piles of discarded clothes, both of which are bad for the environment. Agree/disagree?

2. Lowering wages forces more families into poverty and increases dependence on charities/welfare. Agree/disagree?

[microbet]

Cutting margins is not a productivity improvement. (at least not if you measure sock per person-hour)

[WAR]

If you can cut wages easily, there is already pressure from shareholders to do so, regardless of what Costco does.

[microbet]

@Aofrantic

Very, very few companies have to sell at Costco. They do so because it is profitable. It is not the only game in any town.

They do so because they think it’s going to be profitable. Sometimes they’re right; sometimes they’re wrong.

[microbet]

I’m going to go into the wildfire thread and tell everyone to stop complaining and that fire has done a lot of good for humanity.

[clovis8]

Too often the leftist (whatever term we want to use) critique of large companies like Costco and Walmart ignores the benefit of cheap goods for the bottom quartile.

This in no way negates the other completely justified critiques around pay etc.

[microbet]

So if you can afford to you should at least boycott them and let the bottom quartile shop there.

[clovis8]

I have shopped at Costco maybe 3 times in my life and I shop at Walmart maybe once a year. Not because I am boycotting but because I hate shopping in mega stores. The whole experience is misery.

[Jalfrezi]

Lockdown has been a godsend for me in this respect, as now I have an excuse to rush around the local supermarket in as little time as possible.

[MysteryConman]

@clovis8

Too often the leftist (whatever term we want to use) critique of large companies like Costco and Walmart ignores the benefit of cheap goods for the bottom quartile.

AFAICT, not one poster who is criticizing capitalism, consumerism, or Costco is doing that ITT.

[microbet]

Good. The big boy is Amazon. Some might say they are saving the world by making it so people can have more and cheaper stuff, but I don’t think they’re right. I think they’re already the useful campfire that’s gone out of control, but at least they are a harbinger of doom.

[alex]

@pvn

we are like 4 posts away from overt population control advocacy

You would love the latest Chapo where they argue that immigration is bad for the environment and clown on YIMBYism for 30 minutes straight.

[MrWookie]

Just checking in, but, if the Wookie household shops at Costco weekly, but pretty much only for food, are we basically the cause of the downfall of humanity?

[Jalfrezi]

Only if you’re picking up socks just for the hell of it.