theories focus on maximization of profits. The purpose and objective of the US economy is to satisfy in the most efficient and effective way the natural needs and desires of all Americans (all Americans and not just a privileged few) for food, clothing, housing, a livelihood, education, healthcare, disability care, old age care, communication, recreation/entertainment, social interaction, acceptance and respect. This objective can only be achieved within a balanced economic system. This balance needs to occur between suppliers and producers, and producers and consumers. In a complex economy, an attempt to maximize profits for one or a few organizations, causes an imbalance which if not corrected can have a domino effect. Maximizing profits for an organization by maximizing prices causes a minimization of buying potential for the consumer. This minimization of buying potential for the consumer results in the consumer not being able to buy other things or pay other expenses which impacts those organizations which provide those other goods and services.
Unfortunately, those current economic theories which promote the maximization of profits also promote the principal that corporations are artificial, and that morals do not apply to corporations ‘it is neither right nor wrong, it is just business’. This principal is the basis for placing profits before employees, profits before suppliers, profits before consumers, profits before the good of the economy and profits before the good, health and safety of people.
Everyone needs to understand the implications of excessive price changes, either increases or decreases, on the economy. This should be discussed in schools, at business conferences, by the media, and within the various branches and levels of government. Price management within the context of a balanced economy is first of all the responsibility of businesses themselves. Businesses can and must control prices. However, like driving on a highway where there are speed limits, there needs to be guidelines and regulations regarding price changes.
One of the primary purposes of government is to maintain the appropriate balance between the various elements in society. There needs to be equity and balance between people: the different age groups, the different ethnic groups, and the different economic groups. Individuals, groups, the interactions between individuals and groups, and the interactions between groups all need to be kept in balance. There needs to be balance between individuals, between individuals and businesses, between businesses, and between industries. Balance implies equilibrium, parity and harmony; it does not imply subordination or domination. Balance does not imply equality but rather the absence of extremes and excesses.
Price management is a necessary tactic which must be used by the government to maintain balance and stability within an economy. The government must oversee and limit prices when necessary, for there are no natural limits to prices. Supply-demand theory does not apply to food, energy, healthcare, education and the other basic necessities in life. The dynamics and focus of the modern corporation is to maximize prices and eliminate anything and everything that would attempt to constrain pricing. The modern corporation, which is a construct and instrument of the capitalist class, has as its sole objective the maximization of profits. Maximization of profits comes from maximizing prices while at the same time minimizing costs and expenses (especially material, labor and taxes). In addition, the corporation considers itself to be absolutely amoral. It considers all of its actions as being neither right nor wrong, neither moral nor immoral. Corporations are totally indifferent to the reality that their products may result in injury or even death. They are only concerned regarding the potential expense that they may incur through lawsuits resulting from the deaths that have occurred. Corporations are also indifferent to working conditions that may result in loss of life, limb or health of their employees. They are only concerned about the potential liability resulting from lawsuits involving employee damages. Corporations are indifferent to the facts of people losing their homes, people declaring bankruptcy, or people losing their jobs through their direct actions. And the owners of the corporations hide behind these amoral corporations and calm their consciences by rationalizing that they are not responsible for the wrong-doings of the corporation. They look upon the corporation like a robot, guiltless because it has no conscience and because it is not a moral being. The modern corporation is like the Trojan horse. Outwardly, it appears to be a gift to society. But inwardly, it is filled with people intent on economic conquer and domination.
Corporations constantly seek to increase profits by raising prices or reducing costs (primarily labor, materials and taxes) or both. The CEO and the executive team all have significant monetary incentives to raise prices and reduce costs without limit. When the company achieves record profits, the CEO’s next bonus is based on exceeding the record profits of the year before. The owners want more and more without limit—they want it all. Between 2000 and 2010 the oil oligopoly raised prices without any regard to the effect those price increases would have on the entire economy. They know that people need energy to drive to work and to heat or cool their homes. But they didn’t care. For their sole aim was to maximize profits. Because they hide behind the amoral person of the ‘corporation’, they are indifferent concerning the economic hardships (and in some cases economic ruin) resulting from their extreme prices increases. Over the past forty years, US corporations have been reducing costs by outsourcing jobs to lower wage countries and countries which have poor safeguards for workers. First it was manufacturing jobs and then office jobs: customer service, call centers, helpdesks, accounts payables, accounts receivable, human resources, payroll, and engineering,
Significant price increases that wreak havoc on the economy can only be prevented by government over-sight and management of price increases. Of course, the idea of government price increase management is considered heresy by the capitalist class and the champions of capitalist economics. But price controls have worked in the past (during World War II) and they are the only means of preventing the economic disorder that caused the 2008 Recession. The idea is for the government to prevent significant price increases that impact the entire economy as well as monitor and regulate the basis for price increases. Besides preventing price increases which significantly impact the economy (national, state, and local), the various governments (Federal, state, county and local) must control the outsourcing of jobs. American corporations and American CEO’s have a moral responsibility towards the people of the United States, all people.
Everything within an economy is related and inter-connected. For most goods and services, there is a series of suppliers, each connected to each other, most of which add value to the good or service as it is transformed from raw material to finished good or finished service. This series of suppliers is often referred to as the supply chain of the finished good or finished service. Obviously, the efficiency of the various supply chains is essential to the proper functioning and balance within the national, state and local economies. Supply chain efficiency results from collaboration among the various elements of the supply chain, the lack of domination of the supply chain by one or a few corporations and the prevention and elimination of any link that adds no value to the final product or service.
Over the past one hundred and fifty years there has developed a network of nodes within many supply chains that add absolutely no value whatsoever. They do however add price. These businesses function within commodity markets and trade commodities adding no value whatsoever to the commodities that they are trading. These so-called investors will buy commodities, yet never physically receive the commodity, nor store it, nor transport it, nor transform it in any way. Nor are these so-called investors even capable of physically receiving, storing, transporting or transforming the commodity that they buy. These so-called investors merely buy the commodity with the intention of selling it a short time later at a higher price and yielding a profit for themselves. From a supply chain efficiency point of view, from an economics point of view, and from the final consumer’s point of view, these investors represent a gross inefficiency since they add no value yet increase price.
Commodity market trading is a major factor in the present economic situation that the United States is in. Commodity market traders are adding significant price to commodities and yet there are no controls whatsoever on their activities. Consider the various commodities which are traded and whose supply chains are impacted by non-value added activities and whose prices are higher than they should be because of these non-value added activities: corn, oats, rice, soybeans, rapeseed, wheat, milk, cocoa, coffee, cotton, sugar, frozen concentrated orange juice, hogs, cattle, sheep, chickens, electricity, crude oil, natural gas, heating oil, gasoline, propane, iron ore,