Economy is a big and a strange concept. Personally i don't much understand about it more than i care about the money coming in and out of my wallet. But these days, economy is involved in people's everyday life with its theoretical and practical aspects. Many people started talking and arguing about local and global economy. And throughout history, our consumption habits have changed but our need of infinite consumption hasn't changed. Our production models have changed but we still haven't reached enough of it for everyone. I'm sure the reasons behind these situations are very complex. But i needed to write my gatherings and questions under the concept of economy in this post.
I want to take on these two subjects but it bring the terms like supply, demand, market and capital alongside it. If you look at economy from a narrow perspective, you would fail. But despite it, i will start thinking small :) Think of an apple. You need a tree for it to grow. You also need soil to grow a tree. You will need water for the tree too. When the apple is matured enough, you need to take it to a market. Then you need to find a person who wants to buy an apple. When you find this person, you need to compensate the expenses to grow and transport the apple. I think this is the most basic form of economy.
I started simple so that i can put the basics on the table when we talk about economy. I don't see a shorter process for the apple example. And even this example has lots of phases or variable parameters. If you also include other apple producers or other buyers or new processes, my brain halts :) Because in that case, you can't just think of economy by buying and selling. You need to see its multiple dimensions and consider it like a multi-variable equation.
Of course this is the job of economists. But i'm sure most of the people who read this post is already familiar with some economical concepts while they are going on with their lives of planning their futures. Furthermore, in Turkey, the responsible people of economy are behaving irresponsibly and therefore we need to have a substantial amount of economical background. Isn't this strange? I mean, isn't economy a self-driving process? Why an ordinary person like me has to observe economy closely? I am producing and other people are consuming what i produce. Why isn't this enough?
I think this is where capitalism comes into our lives. But it would be a mistake to jump into capitalism from just by talking about producing and consuming. We need to take a look at the history too. Not that i know much about it, but to question and analyze it.
When we talk about economy, there are number of people and a vast history. But my knowledge only extends up to industrial revolution. Until the 1800th years, mass production and delivery was not much possible. Then machines took over and some people were left unemployed. But still, there were mass and fast productions. And the increase of the world's population sped up with the prosperity. This yielded to consumption madness.
The sociological aspect of this revolution is an important subject but it is out of my area of expertise. I am sure the thinkers have thought and written about this. This revolution spread through the world into other countries who are researching and developing and it changed the world drastically. If you aske me, this is the biggest change in the humankind's history. The second one is the invention of the internet.
Naturally, we expect there would be prosperity for people when the industry is advancing. But i think it wasn't has it went. There were rich and poor distinction. I think this happened because the ability to drive the economy is handed over to people. Because economy should keep on going one way or another by itself. But there emerged the exploiters of the industry age and they gained the power to direct the people's habits of economy.
What i'm trying to say is that we usually say capitalism is bad but we actually miss the what is the essence of the evil. All the systems that gives people to affect the processes are bad. If you give this ability to a certain crowd, than you would inevitably have rebels and you would have to suppress them with violence eventually. Let's take a look at 1900th years too. So that i can explain what i believe clearly.
Some people believe that the world wars are a result of economical reasons. They also argue that the local wars around the world are ignited for economical benefits for some people. Maybe that is how it is. In the end, we know the world had 2 major wars. And if you think that everyone got their head together and devoted their time to develop with peace with everyone else, you are mistaken. There are people who wants to keep fueling 100 years of feuds in this world. That means the humankind is not learning from their mistakes. But it is another subject. Let's focus on economy.
After the wars, countries needed to renew themselves. Naturally they needed stability for this. The world had serious developments without big wars and advances in the fields like physics and chemistry and the ability to extract and use natural resources. This made them blind consumers and they started thinking they can consume forever. But in reality, sometimes what they produce was not even enough for everyone to consume. There were also poverty in the world and there were exploiters. But let's continue with the history without getting into sociology.
As you can see i am focusing on short time spans of history from the economical perspective. In the the 2000th years, technology is hugely advanced and became available for most of us. Humankind took a big step forward again. I don't need to explain it much, since most of you have lived through it. Isn't this the 3rd big revolution of prosperity of humankind? But aren't there still poverty in the world? Isn't it more devastating then ever? Are there anyone left without economical concerns other than some rich people? This post starts when you realize these.
For the last 200 years, we are living through times where we say "look how much opportunities we have". But unfortunately, the other side of the medallion is dark. I have recently read the "grapes of wrath" from John Steinbeck. It is about how sociology changes due to economical changes in the years 1930s in USA. After reading this book, i thought why some people are always controlling the flow of water and some people are fighting for prosperity.
Even though the economy is a complex topic, at the basic level, someone is meeting the need of someone else. But today, most of us are not just producing and selling apples. We are carrying out vast variety of jobs for a variety of different needs. These needs can grow, shrink or change in time with the economical advances.
It feels like there is a penny for everyone. But i will ask the same question again. Why most of the people are having financial difficulties for living or concerned of their future? Now the answer of this question is NOT capitalism :) Since i don't know much about economy, i can't even properly explain capitalism. But i know that a system would feed and grow some people, be it everyone or some elites. These days, the world turned into a strange place where no one except a small minority is satisfied with their situation. I think there is a new and weird understanding or order emerged in the world.
Let me give you and example. If you have 10 apples, you would sell them and buy other things. If you have 100, it is the same. If you have 1000, things start changing. Ok let's cut to the chase. What would you do if you have 1 million apples. You would start letting people sell it for you and you start managing the processes. Then you might try to increase the capacity to grow 2 million apples. Then maybe 3 million. Then maybe you try 4 million but realize it is not sold enough and shrink down your business to 3 million. This seems like a natural process.
Than if you have ill intentions, you would try to sabotage the other apple producers. You might use brute force or cut down your prices. Because you would have the power to do it. And you would deliver ads to people to explain them how apple is healthy and to convince them to eat more apples. On the other hand, you would try to maximize your profit by cutting down the wages or the number of people working for you.
What if you are stupid rather than ill intentioned. For example you wouldn't listen to your workers if they go on a strike. You would oppress them and threaten them by replacing them with people who would fit for lower wages. You would use cheap workers to overproduce. You would miss the opportunities to grow your business. Even if you would seek the opportunities, you would disregard them by not being 100% guarantee. You would deliver lots of ads to compensate and you would actually miss the profit you could gain. You would be blind to new ideas and you would try to exercise the same principals you know in life to your business. You would have an unhappy and average apple company.
Now my question is this: Are people ill intentioned or stupid? If you ask me, some of them are bad people, some of them are stupid. Because despite the biggest advanced in the world, despite the prosperity all around us, people are unable to find jobs even if they want to use their skills and effort. They don't have prosperity even they are not lazy. Because they don't have the power to drive economy. And the people with power (or we can say the owners of the capital) are either blinded to maximize the benefits or born blind.
There is a concept called cheap workforce in the world for a loooong time. Since most of the people want to extract the most out of the least of effort, business owners are jumping through hoops. I think they find it meaningless to pay high wages to skilled workers. Therefore the apples are either produced rotten or wasted in the road or they are not sold properly. This seems like trying to grow muscles using 1 kg of weight. You need to push yourself up to 4-5 kilos so that your muscles can get used to more weight than usual. You need to pay for the work and the workers :)
One of the ill intentions of today's economy is to push you to the bottom of the food chain and keep you there. I think i have written this before, the main purpose of capitalism is not to get rich, it is to keep others poor. This is how people are forced to ask for a job from someone who produces apples, since they don't even have the power to produce and sell apples themselves. In other words, the destiny of the poor is to make the rich people richer.
This is the economical place the world ended up, even though humankind is advancing in quantum physics or artificial intelligence. It seems like poor is going to be poorer and rich is going to be richer as long the concept of money exists in the world. No matter how much you try to work, your gain won't make you any rich. Of course working and earning money is a valuable thing. But we are working to stay alive. But in fact, normal people are not trying to earn free money. They want to work and produce. They are looking for jobs because they can't create their own. This is weird. If you have some money and create a business of your own, you would easily find lots of workers to work for you. But why rich people aren't doing this? That is what i don't understand.
As a matter of fact, people can only overcome the rich and powerful people if they get together. Today, i think this is called unionization and it is suppressed, probably for the last 200 years. If you don't fight against it, the world would be a "make the rich richer or die" place. And that rich people might be the 1% of the world.
I am presenting you a peaceful way for your fight. This is exactly why i produced a web application without any ads or subscriptions. I know people can gather their skills and produce apples. So i have produced the website called Öğret Bakalım for the people to get together. You can take a look at it in detail in this post.
Finally this is another post where i analyze a problem and bring my proposal of a solution. One should not just talk about the problems. They should also have ideas of solutions if possible. I give you a tangible offer, not just an idea. I hope you realize its benefit for you. See you at the next post :)
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