Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Just Remember, When Bezos Says "Disrupt" Millions Of Workers End Up Out Of A Job

Sure, we need more affordable healthcare, but what you have here is an excellent example of why trying to reform Capitalism piecemeal is so fraught with counter intuitive effects; most especially when one focuses only on prices; as retail through Amazon has certainly lowered them, but at the cost of putting millions of retail workers out of jobs, and the destruction of brick and mortar stores that have been a big part of gutting the viability of small town America.

So now we can buy a lot of stuff cheaply that we don't make anymore. And further to the point here, how much is this going to help people when every aspect of both retail sales, and product distribution require less and less people to make happen precisely because it takes automation to make lower prices possible in the first place. And make no mistake. How much longer do you suppose having humans involved with the majority of Chase's business is going to last?

So we put more competition into drug creation, production, and distribution. What then? Do we continue to make drugs here? Or does that have to go overseas as well. And then what about marginal market drugs. Who will make those if the profit margins go way down.

So, as you can see, this also illustrates the adage of "Everybody wants to buy from competitive markets, but nobody wants to sell there."

As such lets then suppose that these guys create a new pharmaceutical juggernaut that does to that commodity what Bezos has already done to retail in general. And lets further suppose that both of these juggernauts gain massive market dominance. What then? After the inevitable churn of management turnover, and new shareholder demands for better profitability, do you think these new entities will always be able to resist taking advantage of their new found, total market control? Will prices stay low then?

Amazon, Chase, and Berkshire Hathaway partner up to disrupt health care

See Also:
[Post Note: And of course, even if disruption doesn't take your job away it can still make it a living hell. J.V.]

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Companies love using the latest and greatest technology to keep track of employees, even when they’re at home. But Amazon’s new idea goes to extremes to treat employees like fleshy robots.

[Post Note: Here is another example of a "disruptor" flexing their new found muscle, after having first established themselves as a "price" reducer. J.V.]