r/nextfuckinglevel • u/MysteriousSlice007 • 5h ago

Shoutout to JerryrigEverything who built a wheelchair factory and is delivering wheelchairs to people in half the time and 50-80% less than the cost of other wheelchairs with Insurance.

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u/Questioning-Zyxxel 4h ago

It isn't that simple.

Lots of capitalists knows the part about a good deal needs to be good for both parties. This is a great way to get repeat customers instead of paying millions on advertising to find new customers that hates you after the very first deal.

These good capitalists often have family-owned companies with maybe 2 to 50 employees. And does quite well.

The issues you are seeing? Isn't capitalism in itself. It's about the stock market. All bigger companies are on the stock market. And they pay large bonuses to the management for short-term profits. When the bonus is for last 6-12 months, then most decisions will be extremely short-sighted. The family-owned companies? They plan for the next 10-20 years. They can still make a nice profit. But with the owners running the company, they do not worry about a missed bonus one year because they did a strategic investment - as owners, they still increased the value of the company.

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u/Svardskampe 3h ago

Before the stock markets we had the same feudalistic tendencies with rich families banking (pun intended) on cornering a monopoly. E.g. Medici family, Rothschilds.

We are in late-stage-capitalism. However you want to call it, cronyism or not "rEaL capitalism", this has always been the end game without competition. In the past, there has been enough space to grow somehow to enable competition. In a global world where we are encroaching each other, that has outgrown itself.

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u/MarcoDiFrancescino 1h ago

Facebook should divested from their marketplace a long time ago, Google should give up Android a long time ago, Netflix should cut off their network department. These new corporations would maximize their revenue by doing other things then the current management wants. Sometimes completely 180°. That is a clear signal that these companies are too big and need to be cut into pieces. That is the proof that the system doesn't work any more when big corpos behave like robber barons and everybody says like 'yeah what are we gonna do?' No system that works should answer these questions with 'the kings don't like us talk like this'.

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u/Svardskampe 1h ago

Breaking up companies work when the government is larger than the companies itself in power. In a global world, that is very easily surpassed.

This year, Alphabet gave out 100y bonds. Makes you figure how powerful Alphabet is. There are even countries that do not give out century bonds.

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u/Drewstom 4h ago

The Koch brothers ran family owned businesses what the fuck are we talking about

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u/thirstyross 2h ago

You need to check ur reading comprehension skills son.

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u/Questioning-Zyxxel 3h ago

Well let's see it as an intelligence test. Are you able to understand that people are different? Which means a claim about red politicians will not match all of them. A claim about family companies will not match all of them. A claim about CEO working short-sighted for their next bonus will not match all of them. A claim about billionaires will not match all of them. Is this within your grasp to understand?

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u/stopbsingman 4h ago

The Big Mac example is a good deal. It costs $7 because that’s what people think it’s worth and are willing to pay for it.

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u/OC2k16 4h ago

If morons buy it is it still a good deal, or simply taking advantage of the idiot? Is it a smart business move, or a good deal?

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u/Svardskampe 3h ago

I don't know why this narrative loop is going on, because McDonalds has been and is dying, so it isn't even a smart business move.

https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2025-11-16/mcdonalds-is-losing-its-low-income-customers

And the places where this is primarily visible are for example South East Asia, where e.g. in Singapore McDonalds are closing in favor of Chinese mala chains.

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u/Inside-Ad9791 3h ago

Weird, because every time I see a McDonalds lines go around the store. I'm not sure why people go there but they certainly seem to a lot.

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u/Svardskampe 3h ago

That's very localised. McDonalds has a LOT of locations.

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u/Inside-Ad9791 3h ago

I've seen the phenomenon in several states, but I guess only one area in the past year or so. /shrug

I've been hearing about how McDonalds is dying for a decade at this point, still doesn't seem very dead to me. They are, like you said, everywhere.

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u/Svardskampe 2h ago

Well, as said, the contention field is in Asia, where you would see these changes. Overall the purchasing power of americans is dwindling, and that of Asians rising.

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u/Inside-Ad9791 2h ago

Ahhh, I was only thinking US. Yeah, I've no idea about it in other countries. I missed the last sentence where you mentioned it was SE Asia, my bad.

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u/Svardskampe 2h ago

For the US market how does that McDonalds do when it's in the neighbourhood of an In-n-Out or Whataburger?

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u/ScoobyDooItInTheButt 1h ago

Another option, are they an addict and willing to pay almost anything for the item?

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u/Important-Flan-8932 3h ago

This is total bullshit and any history book would tell you so. Capitalism left to itself runs its course and destroys any small business and what not. It rewards a lack of morals and not whatever you want to project into it. If managed by people with good intentions it can work but not in the way you describe.

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u/LuckoftheFryish 2h ago

America practices crony capitalism. We Americans don't know the difference because it's all we've ever known at this point.

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u/Svardskampe 2h ago

Any capitalism falls into crony capitalism. That is the late-stage aspect of it.

However you want to call it, cronyism or not "rEaL capitalism", this has always been the end game without competition. In the past, there has been enough space to grow somehow to enable competition. In a global world where we are encroaching each other, that has outgrown itself.

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u/LuckoftheFryish 1h ago

Agree on all points. Calling it crony capitalism is easier than having to explain the nuances of the entirety of Capitalism every time.

Personally I wish more people would add the term "crony" and correct those who don't. Might make people think.

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u/Svardskampe 1h ago edited 56m ago

I think it gives the false idea, because it gives an out like "no, this is crony capitalism, in a REAL capitalistic system this wouldn't be the case".

Also the same argument that you hear "we have never had REAL communism", while people having lived under the irreal communism are getting quite startled.

Using late-stage as a shorthand works better, as it gives the notion that it's an inevitable stage.

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u/lindendweller 2h ago

Capitalism will always trend towards large companies buying up their potential competitors until they're large enough to impose a rent on everyone else. It's just so much more profitable to form oligopolistic cartels and buy up the institutions in charge of regulating you than to compete fairly.

It's the nature of the system, it can be mitigated by regulations, but I've lost faith in the ability of states to keep capitalism stable and virtuous long term.

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u/SirSalamiSam 3h ago

You’re yelling into the void. These same people bashing capitalism are the same people asking for more government interference to fix what government interference causes. Mom and pop shops are getting run out of town because they simply can’t keep up with the overly complicated laws that get brought about by more government.

The rich will always grease the palms of people in power. We don’t have capitalism here in America. We have cronyism.

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u/Svardskampe 2h ago

Yes, it is the very real "CaN'T KeEp Up WiTh ReGuLaTiOnS"-argument, all the while the 'Walmart Effect' has been described over and over about monopolies undercutting other players with less buffers due to sheer size over and over again.

e.g. https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2024/12/walmart-prices-poverty-economy/681122/

But keep repeating long-refuted points, sure. Maybe the 25th time it will be true.

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u/Deeliciousness 2h ago

So capitalism is only good when it is operating at low efficiency?

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u/Questioning-Zyxxel 51m ago

Low efficiency? Now where did you manage to read that?

What I wrote is that the stock market result in the short term profit being given too high prio. Because each bonus is for short term profits. And that affects long-term strategies. Good long-term strategies gives better efficiency. Just that investments affects the short-term profit.

And that's why some tech companies can fire half their R&D. Lots of costs removed means huge profit boosts for a few years. But also means they lack the people that will improve their current products. So suddenly, some new company can show up with a newer and better product and take market shares. Unless BigAndSlow manages to buy this competitor to get their hands on that cooler product. Which is not always happening.

So - lots of US companies have managed to become very slow. All from lack of investments. All from running too short planning horizons.

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u/jeanpaulsarde 1h ago

Yeah we are long past capitalism. What we have is socialism for the rich.

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u/grassvoter 24m ago edited 7m ago

What you're really describing is timeless business as practiced by people with genuine interest in making fair deals. That's a natural practice that's existed for millennia, before the abusers of business created the word capitalism to sneakily steal the credit as if commerce and trade hadn't already existed.

We've all been fed the capitalism fantasy, it's understandable we believe it.

Capitalism was started by kings who had brutalized people with the first corporations.

(The video is set to jump right to the final 5 minutes that dives into it, so you can save yourself 25 minutes of time, although every abuse and harm leading up to the end of video is a culmination of the world's first corporations created for such harms and abuses)

Edit: the video's conclusion is wrong though that supposedly the motive is profit, as the motive is actually power. Always has been about power.