This is what happens when you try to extract more and more value off the top of labor, without any added value other than line must go up. When suppressing wages is the only way to improve corporate profits, profits are capped and stockholders hate this. This is in theory suppose to encourage innovation to increase efficency (without just resorting to skeleton crews or pressuring labor for more output). Monopolies stop innovating due to market control and look at other methods of increasing profits with leverage rather than market competitiveness.
It’s true the biggest issue with capitalism is that it’s ‘not ok’ for that line to go down, ever. It’s ridiculous. A healthy business can ride things out up and down over time if they have good policies and smart planning. Prioritizing shareholders above all is a shell game.
Firms have leverage over non organized labor even when they’re much smaller than monopolies. Especially at the lower end of the pay spectrum. Running the economy not at full employment guarantees there’s a replacement waiting for a worker attempting wage negotiations. But at the whole spectrum, unless there’s a significant labor shortage in some skill set, individual workers have much more limited negotiating power than firms. So firms employ labor abuse instead of innovation even when they’re small. Perhaps even at the small business stage.
This is what happens when you try to extract more and more value off the top of labor, without any added value other than line must go up. When suppressing wages is the only way to improve corporate profits, profits are capped and stockholders hate this. This is in theory suppose to encourage innovation to increase efficency (without just resorting to skeleton crews or pressuring labor for more output). Monopolies stop innovating due to market control and look at other methods of increasing profits with leverage rather than market competitiveness.
It’s true the biggest issue with capitalism is that it’s ‘not ok’ for that line to go down, ever. It’s ridiculous. A healthy business can ride things out up and down over time if they have good policies and smart planning. Prioritizing shareholders above all is a shell game.
Firms have leverage over non organized labor even when they’re much smaller than monopolies. Especially at the lower end of the pay spectrum. Running the economy not at full employment guarantees there’s a replacement waiting for a worker attempting wage negotiations. But at the whole spectrum, unless there’s a significant labor shortage in some skill set, individual workers have much more limited negotiating power than firms. So firms employ labor abuse instead of innovation even when they’re small. Perhaps even at the small business stage.