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Pandii
21st February 2007, 03:53
After an argument with Yazman, we have come to a, well, non-conclusion about capitalism, its economics and its ever growing need for profit, profit, and more profit.

The argument lies here within - does capitalism need to create MORE and MORE profit, or is it economically viable to just create a static profit? I believe that there needs to be constant growth in the profit made, because there is always competition - always another venture to undertake to ultimately create more profit. Yazman disagrees and says that in a purely economic sense, a corporation - if making a profit, will not disappear and doesnt necessarily have to increase its profit to survive.

I think this is a load of bollocks, capitalist economics is about making more profit, cutting costs, and increasing that number at the end of profit/loss statements. Without increasing profit, I believe competition will utlimately engulf that corporation under yet another umbrella brand name.

If talking in a 'purely economic sense', you have to take that into context, and if the amount of profit around the globe increases, then so too does the profit needed to get by for corporations.

Looking forward to the following discussion.

KC
21st February 2007, 04:51
The argument lies here within - does capitalism need to create MORE and MORE profit, or is it economically viable to just create a static profit? I believe that there needs to be constant growth in the profit made, because there is always competition - always another venture to undertake to ultimately create more profit. Yazman disagrees and says that in a purely economic sense, a corporation - if making a profit, will not disappear and doesnt necessarily have to increase its profit to survive.

I'd have to agree with Yazman on this. Companies need not increase their profits in order to survive; they need to maintain a surplus value while also competing with other companies. This is because in order to compete companies must sell their products for a lower price than their competitors. In order to do this they can do numerous things - increase the productive forces, make the workers work longer, make them work more productively (faster/harder), purchase the materials for production at lower prices, etc...

This means that, while they sell more product due to these changes, they will receive a smaller profit per unit sold. However, since they sell more product they are able to maintain or even increase their profits. This is why I agree with Yazman.