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steve's avatar

" For example, both Walmart and Amazon pioneered a strategy of undercutting local businesses on prices to grow their market share. "

I know this article isn't about economics, but one thing I rarely ever see people mention is that cheap debt (printed money from the Fed) is necessary to create these corporate behemoths. It is this cheap debt that allows these mega corporations and franchised businesses to expand so rapidly and grab their market share. Without this cheap debt, it would be extremely difficult to acquire and build out the capital (buildings, truck, equipment, etc.) needed to run these businesses.

Hospitals require lots of capital (buildings, equipment, etc.). Cheap debt has allowed a small handful of corporations to take over the healthcare market. Before that, my understanding was many hospitals were run by charitable organizations, churches, etc - smaller, more private actors.

At the same time, this cheap debt makes capital equipment relatively less expensive than people. So, businesses install capital equipment at a more rapid pace than they would without the cheap debt. However, the employees cannot adjust their skills fast enough under the regime of cheap debt. So, many of them lose their jobs, even though the addition of capital equipment actually creates more, but different, jobs.

I would argue that it's not so much money, but fake money or debt that is treated as money, that causes these problems. When there is a love of money and you can simply clip coins (the ancient way - there are Bible passages on equal weights and measures about this very thing), print money (the way of most of the 20th century) or add digits in a computer (today's way), you don't need to put in any work to actually acquire more money. That naturally attracts the wrong type of people to having the most money. And, that's the problem.

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Lia's avatar

Despite all the censoring, another thing to consider is the 'ignorance is bliss' mentality. If we choose not to know about or understand something, then we have no moral culpability to respond. Often, that's why it's easier for us to believe a lie than to explore an uncomfortable truth.

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