In the beginning was the economics, and the economics was… bad.
Keynes wrote how the govern-cement could mess with the money supply and thus "make things better", and govern-cement saw that this was good, and made Keynes be the only thing taught in economics classes…
And then came the central bank, the Fed (dun dun DUNNNN) and killed off capitalism with the stroke of a pen.
But, this isn't our story. Our story is about manufacturing, and what Inflationary Currency + Economies of Scale + Marketing meant for the ordinary person.
When your money is inflating away, it is best to get some goods that will keep. But what happens when you add to that an unlimited supply of cheap goods? Well, you get a whole bunch of storage facilities popping up all over… i mean, you get a bunch of consumers.
The customer who wanted good value for his money, now wants the shiny gizmo for his currency that is burning a hole in his pocket. (inflation causes fiat to become hot)
And, this is what we, today, call "Capitalism". The making of goods, as fast as you can, just good enough to get out of the store in one piece, and ready to break down, or become outdated so you could go buy another one.
This is the supply-demand curve shown in most economics classes.
They say, when the price goes up, more people want to supply the goods, and when price goes down more people want to buy the goods, and such a equilibrium point is found.
However, this is really only half the story. It really only exists in a field that has little barrier to entry.
Such as, if there are only little farmers, then another can come along and start competing with the others. However, if there are only giant mega-farms. So big they run 10 combine harvesters in parallel (that is a billion dollars of hardware) then a little person cannot start a farm and compete in any way.
And so it is with manufacturing. Economies of scale can be so great that a large plant can produce parts so much cheaper that no one can ever try competing.
So what we have is a very different supply-demand curve.
One that is really set by marketing. Where, within reason, you can have any quantity, at the price set by the marketting department.
In this situation, you no longer really have competition. The apparent competition is often just the same manufacturing plant making products with different name tags.
There is no ability for the average person, even the average company to break into the market. They just can't compete with the economies of scale. Further, most of the stores are not what you think, they will not carry your new brand.
Those cereals on the shelf at your supermarket? They are paying for that shelf space.
However, there are new factors entering the market. Robotics. 3D printers. CNC machines.
And there are factors that are making large scale manufacturing problematic. Huge overhead costs. Ageing work force. Unionized labor.
The big factory has to make so many toasters a month, or they go out of business. They cannot make 1 toaster, they have to make 10,000 toasters. (they usually have an upper limit too. No scalability)
But, lets say someone started making these things in his garage. (almost no overhead) And he made them one at a time with robotic help, when an order came in. Not beforehand. So, there is no excess inventory. No piles of last years model. No wasted time.
And since a local guy made it, you can probably get replacement parts. No more throwing out a perfectly good coffee maker because a 1¢ washer wore out.
It will be made to serve the local customs/needs. Can be upgraded by open source groups.
And when the big factories close down because not enough people are buying their shit anymore (hard times are hard), then these local manufacturers will hopefully become the new normal.
And we will have something that actually could be called, capitalism.
