Quote:
Originally Posted by Dragonelf68  Economic problems? For huge ass companies that are total assholes? 
Economic problems, if you go by the definition of the average person, do not exist for big companies. Apple's monthly profit dropped a couple thousand dollers? Who gives a shit besides idiotic rich people who can't understand the concept of poor. Like it makes a difference. |
Quote:
Originally Posted by Legolas* If your talking about the US of A we have VERY little economic problems, now I'm not saying that to gloat to be so full of my self and self-absorbed, but this is EXTREMELY far from what happened on black Tuesday. |
Well, think of it this way: many large companies and corporations lost money during this depression. Meanwhile, it costs a fortune to create and market these programs (no matter how crappy they are). So what do the companies do?
Typically, a recession should lead to lower demand because less people can afford to buy products. This means that prices should fall to meet the new equilibrium.
Unfortunately, they don't do this. They instead rely on the remaining consumer base for their profits, and thus increase prices. They can do this because the entertainment industry is ruled by an
oligopoly, which is one step below a monopoly.
Companies in oligopolies can control prices despite better than markets with more competition because they have little competition. Thus, if they're losing money, they'll probably end up trying to suck money from consumers because consumers have little power in setting the prices.
So, if you were a large corporation and you were losing money, what would you do?
And this is exactly what is wrong with our economic system. It's too full of oligopolies. These companies have what you want, and they can sell it to you at high prices no matter how shitty it is. Who are you going to turn to? The other company making less shittier products at lower but still outrageous prices? They can also do whatever they want and get away with it. They'll force it on new PCs, they'll make you pay subscription fees for certain services, etc., and you can't do anything about it because what's the alternative? If you read up on oligopolies, you'll find out that the alternatives aren't very different (Though it's a Wikipedia article, it's very close to the truth).
And this is why Capitalism has become a staple for a economy of rich greedy fucks and the poor sheep that they feed off of.
But now they have free software entering the picture. It's competition, which threatens their price-setting abilities. So what do they do? They try to get rid of the competition. They can't buy the company out because their is no company or the creators don't want their money, so plan A won't work with them. So they go with plan B: They convince people that their products are better and that buying their crap contributes positively to the American economy. Because they pull shit like this and hope that it works, because Americans don't want Communism to erupt in America, and they definitely don't want to contribute to it.
The problem is now that our country may head towards another form of totalitarianism, a kind in which corporations, not single individuals, will govern our society. It's not certain, but you can't rule it out.
The best way to prevent this is to not buy their shit. Just say not. Vote with your wallet. Though you risk the company collapsing from lack of revenue and thus dragging the economy with it, the companies will probably be more concerned about making money that, unless they're complete morons, will finally give in to consumer demands. Unfortunately, the challenge will be to make enough people "vote with their wallets" in order to make a difference, and some people are not willing to give up what they want despite how much it costs.
In short, there is too little competition in many industries today, and this is why Capitalism has become what it is, and the only way to change this is either to create competition or stop eating the shit that they feed you.
The Pub 
Re: If you use Open Office or Linux you may be a Communist 
Linear Mode
