Sunday, April 20, 2014

Thoughts from an Easter morning conversation

I went grocery shopping earlier this morning. I've discovered that Sunday morning is a great time to do that, because so many people are off in church worshipping whatever version of God fits their personal weltanschauung, keeping the aisles free of banging shopping carts.

I enjoy having the occasional chat with real people, because I can get a different take on Things That Matter™, as opposed to the blatherings of paid curmudgeons, such as those I often quote on my weak attempt at blogging, “Who Says I Have To Be Reasonable?” (http://whattevs.blogspot.com/).

So as I waited while a clerk at Safeway loaded me up with chicken salad and other deli goodies, she wished me a happy Easter. I wished her one back and mentioned that I was sorry she had to work today. She replied that she was happy to be able to work today, and that she was worried about what would happen to her job now that Albertsons had bought Safeway.

This brief conversation brings to mind an unfortunate (as I see it) ongoing trend in modern America's version of Capitalism: consolidation. Consolidation has been going on for years in most areas of bidness. We've seen it in the airline industry, media, and, well, every industry. I've been ranting against it since I was arguing politics on Compuserve before Clinton was electated President.

Bidness consolidation almost always results in job loss in the consolidated company. Millions of mostly middle class Americans have lost their source of income as they are 'downsized' by a company that has consolidated by acquiring a competitor, then grabbing the competitor's assets, and letting go of the duplicate staff. This is usually done to make the acquiring company 'mean and lean', in the mistaken belief that this will 'maximize shareholder value'.

Unfortunately, not only does consolidation harm working families who lose income and often must join the ranks of the poor, but it lowers the number of people who can actually be shareholders. Consolidation harms consumers because there are fewer choices of products and retailers, and it has been shown to raise prices. Consolidation lowers worker pay because the consolidated company needs fewer workers, can chose workers from a larger pool of job seekers, and can demand higher productivity while offering only slightly-higher pay for the productivity increases. So far as I can tell, consolidation in bidness primarily benefits the large, monied investor. It doesn't help regular folks for the above-mentioned reasons, as well as for the fact that the resultant job losses and lower pay levels keep many people from fully participating as investors. I hope I don't have to explain to anyone why this is. If I do, let me know, and I will!

Consolidation is yet another factor in the unbalanced world economy, where the top income earners have continued to earn a greater share of the world's wealth while the vast majority of people have seen little to no improvement in their earning ability.

Have a great Easter and think upon what I'm saying. I have tried to avoid making this a political discussion, rather it is an economic rant. How'd I do?