to not understand capitalism

[IceBeing]

Some people work hard (say 60 hours a week all year) and get paid about £20000 a year...and some people work hard and get paid 10 or even 100 times as much a year.

How can 60 hours a week of work from 1 person be worth 100 times as much as 60 hours a week of work from another person?

I think you do understand Capitalism perfectly, Ice, afterall, it's very simple.

You perhaps don't agree with it?

Communism as it was run , was pretty horrific. Soul destroying, wretched and simply purposeless.

less I should have specified the core function of a product say a leather bag v leather mulberry bag

The brand is what is desired, as I said up thread these are exceptional goods the theory of demand and supply applies to what is termed 'normal' goods.

Competition is inbuilt as back then being bcompetative meant you survived and so did your off spring. I hate it when I catch myself oggling others 'haves'. The pressure on parent to create economically productiove offsrping in our society can be seen in the pushy parents, the tutoring, the moving to ge them into the school - state education is an example of market failure.

I think you will find your answers to your question in Human Biology as a subject - specifically that part of Human Biology which relates to human behaviours and the reason behind them, and where it crosses over to psychology.

I suspect that its so wired into human nature via the human brain to behave in a capitalist fashion that's its actually part of the survival instinct. I actually think we don't realise how lucky we are living in 21st Century Britain, because we have the benefits of capitalism alongside the mechanism to participate - yet those who cannot are looked after.

Yes, its fashionable on here to moan but compared to just about any other era of human history or many countries in the world, we have it pretty good.

Even in regards to the designer bags though, anyone can get a canvas bag, and it will do the job of hauling around their things. Some people want more than a sack though... For them, a handbag is a part of their outfit, and is bought accordingly. Again, not for everyone, but it's nice to have those options.

I still don't see what the OP has against an open market? Open markets cater to different tastes. I don't eat halal meat, but that doesn't mean that I think they should stop selling it. I don't smoke cigarettes, and I think they're a terrible, nasty thing that will cause cancer, but I don't advocate taking away individuals rights to smoke.

When the pursuit of your personal desires begins to infringe on others, then that needs to be reviewed. But I don't see how a footballer or a banker earning millions, or me having scented tampons in my designer handbag, infringes on your rights?

"Being a CEO is something everyone can do, or something hardly anyone can do?
Being a FTSE CEO is probably a bit like being a footballer in a lot of ways.
Lots of people can run companies in the way that lots of people can have a knock about in the park. Someone can do it well enough to play for 2nd division teams, but only a handful are good enough to do it at the top level.

And just like footballers, when CEOs are doing really well, they can get poached by better offers from overseas places.
If you don't think top execs will down tools and go somewhere else for a better offer elsewhere, taking their families abroad if required, then you have clearly never ever met either a top exec or a headhunter of top execs.
There is a reason that there is an entire page in the FT every day of people moves. These people move for better offers, and will carry on doing so.
The reason they get better offers is because they can do the job better than anyone else. "

Not a good comparison at all.

A footballer from a Sunday league club would be found hopelessly wanting in the 2nd division, and in turn the 2nd division player would be outclassed in the Premier League.

They are very specific physical skills that can easily be observed.

By contrast, let's say a CEO of a company gets a new IT system built by a contractor following a presentation. He doesn't know anything about the details of IT, but he's sold on the presentation. This IT system succeeds makes the company lots of money. Whoo! Now the CEO is a genius and he's head-hunted somewhere else.

He tries to repeat the trick, still doesn't know anything about IT, but this time the IT system is a disaster and the company goes bust.

It's ridiculous to say that CEOs have special CEO skills. Lots of them get their positions through nepotism, being in the right place at the right time, or any number of other factors unrelated to their skills.

You cannot accurately measure a CEO's talents. There are thousands of people working in companies, including many talented people below him. If there is someone with genius in a particular position, that could make the company a fortune. But it doesn't prove anything about the CEO.

capitalism wants people to gain comfort and succour from materialism and so that they act illogically and irrationally to borrow instead of saving to maintain or increase the number of 'nice' things.

Wrong. Capitalism doesn't make people act irrationally. Self-esteem makes people act irrationally. I can pick up a copy of Grazia, and look at the ads and distinguish between things that I genuinely like, and things that are just being pushed in my face for the sake of it. I'm not special. Everyone CAN do that. If someone chooses to extend themselves to get the next handbag/pair of shoes/house/iPad/whatever, that's not society's fault.

The challenging bit is everybody agreeing on the common good - I think they might have glossed over how that happened on Star Trek…

kim progress isnt a drain on the planet however over population is.

If your designer handbag needs more oil to make the plastic parts than an ordinary handbag, then it has an impact on the environment.

That's about being a responsible consumer. And, what do we have to thank for a society where you can responsibly source almost everything you could want or need?

(Everyone together now...) CAPITALISM!

capitalism wants people to gain comfort and succour from materialism and so that they act illogically and irrationally to borrow instead of saving to maintain or increase the number of 'nice' things.

That is consumerism, not capitalism.

Capitalism just wants you to invest in my idea. My idea could be to solve world hunger.

Aga
I suspect you don't work in close proximity to a FTSE CEO, if you think they take cold calls from IT salesman, or install new systems on a whim after seeing presentations.
And the example you give probably explains your fundamental inability to grasp by good business leaders are paid very well, and are in very high demand.

If being a good CEO was installing new IT and then leaving, it wouldn't take 2 years to do an MBA, for starters.

You might not be able to measure the skills of a CEO, but many others can. They are actually quite obvious if you know what you are looking for. But just like I'm not a talent scout for Liverpool, you aren't sitting on the rem committee of non-exec board of a multinational which is looking at its succession planning.

*"I have no demand whatsoever for stock brokering bullshit."

The people who provide your food do though*

This

Also do you gave any requirement for a mortgage, a credit card, a loan? These are just different sides of the same coin.

sparechange

Yes, I do like the idea that the CEO success is due to nothing more than luck...

sparechange, most CEOs don't have MBAs.

And you simply CANNOT measure the skills of a CEO in an objective manner.

statistically
You wouldn't BELIEVE the number of CEOs who get to run multinationals because of who their dad is...

Damn, that's where I've been going wrong!

So, because you think you can't measure the skills in an objective manner, you don't believe they exist?

sparechange I got my last position as a MD in the UK because my aunt was the CEO in the US. I kept my position because I was good at what I did. You can't blame people who use their connections to get their foot in the door, but in the end, it's the shareholders who have the say, and they could care less who your dad is if you're not lining their pockets.

Indeed.

images.businessweek.com/slideshows/20110715/twenty-ceos-who-inherited-their-jobs

Al the directors and CEO's I know ( and I know A LOT) are ferociously hard working and exceptionally clever.