The poster in the window

ILW

A business model that relies on a single customer is not that clever.

In the end it is no good blaming Tesco for being the biggest, they are just supplying what the customer demands, and tend to do it the best.

TruckerT

I don't very often look at threads whose replies have gone massively into double figures because usually it means that the thread will be wildly off-topic - this thread is no different!

But I would like to invite you all to compare the behaviour of the Supermarket System with the behaviour of the Banking System

The Suoermarkets are supremely successful, but the Banks have failed - they lost sight of their own 'Products', their own 'Customers', and their own 'Suppliers'

I was interested to learn on the national news that the biggest objection to the re-capitalisation of the banks comes from the banks themselves - because it would likely lead to their partial or total nationalisation

Bring it on!

We did it to the coal industry, and we did it to the railways, and then we gave it all back. Now we have massive dissatisfaction with both energy suppliers and train company prices

It now becomes clear that, like Energy, Transport, Water etc, 'Banking' is a fundamental/essential part of a successful capitalist society

Supermarkets, for the time being at least, appear to be competing with each other very effectively

Possibly that is because each supermarket's 'infrastructure' is completely self-contained - Transport and Energy are simply not suited to a capitalist system - and, arguably, neither is Banking

TruckerT

Ilya_Ilyich

ILW wrote: »

A business model that relies on a single customer is not that clever.

In the end it is no good blaming Tesco for being the biggest, they are just supplying what the customer demands, and tend to do it the best.

You've done an incredible job of creating strawmen in pretty much every post in this thread, good work!

ILW

Ilya_Ilyich wrote: »

You've done an incredibly job of creating strawmen in pretty much every post in this thread, good work!

What is your point?

Tell me where I was wrong.

A._Badger

ILW wrote: »

What is your point?

Tell me where I was wrong.

You're not wrong - you're just trying to argue with student politicians. However old they are. Watered down neo-Marxist claptrap coupled with envy, jealousy and a view of laser-like narrowness. It's a heady combination.

I'm no fan of Tesco - I'd probably classed as being firmly in the enemy camp. That said, a town I know well is currently faced with a planning application from the company and the strongest supporters, by a country mile, are the locals.

Of course, the polenta-eating class is up in arms. It thinks everyone should shop at the town deli and the organic farmers' market.

I doubt they'd be so vocal if the PA was from Waitrose.

Still, never mind what hoi polloi want, eh? Democracy is just a word in protest songs, it doesn't mean what the dictionary says.

TruckerT

A._Badger wrote: »

Democracy is just a word in protest songs, it doesn't mean what the dictionary says.

Protest songs are one of the best indicators of a healthy democracy!

all together now - united we stand, divided we fall

TruckerT

julieq

Few points worth making here.

Profits don't go to some cabal of the super-rich. They go to pension funds for the most part. Cut profits to private companies and you're just generating a problem downstream.

The idea that business doesn't pay its full share for public services is ridiculous class war rabble rousing. In fact it does, because it is where ALL state income comes from ultimately. Corporation tax is a total red herring, the bulk of tax take comes from employment based taxation and the money employees are able to spend in the economy. Even banker bonuses result in a 40% tax return to the economy directly from a bank.

What UK Uncut, and much of the left at present, is doing is pretending that there is some imaginary big brother who is able to pick up the tab for increased public spending, so their supporters don't have to and everything can continue as things were before the evil banks took the money away. This avoids awkward questions about whether the excessive state spending that was brought into focus by the credit crunch may just have been the state's responsibility rather than the banks. If you or I overstretch, it's our fault generally speaking, and we can't suggest that it's the fault of the rich for not paying some of our loan off. Yet that is the UK Uncut argument in a nutshell.

You'll also hear people suggesting we can have "free" this and that: free tuition in universities, free care for the elderly, free money for the less well off. Well it's not free. Someone gets to pay for it. Whether or not the rich stay or go, there aren't enough of them to pay for university for half the population. WE ALL have to pay more in tax to get better services. Do the maths.

TruckerT

julieq wrote: »

WE ALL have to pay more in tax to get better services. Do the maths.

Correction - we all have to pay in order to keep the banks in profit

TruckerT

julieq

If you want to try living without banks you're very welcome to Trucker. But bearing in mind the problems that started when the banks stopped lending, I think you might find it's more difficult than you think.

Ilya_Ilyich

Our current system has a net flow of capital from the poor to the rich over time. We're paying more and more to one small subset of the population by depriving the vast majority. Why is this desirable?

julieq wrote: »

If you or I overstretch, it's our fault generally speaking, and we can't suggest that it's the fault of the rich for not paying some of our loan off. Yet that is the UK Uncut argument in a nutshell.

If our society creates an economic system designed to direct capital to the wealthy and then attempts to pay for widespread services for the poor then it's probably not going to work. Quite why the solution necessarily entails cutting services to the poor instead of stopping the flow of wealth to the rich I'm not sure and haven't seen explained other than awful analogies about credit cards and personal finances.