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Yes, and before we had efficient textile factories, scores of small businesses and individuals worked as wool spinners - many of them women (the origin of the t
by Pyxl101 11y ago
Yes, and before we had efficient textile factories, scores of small businesses and individuals worked as wool spinners - many of them women (the origin of the term "spinster"). These businesses went kaput when industrialization came along.
Same thing with farming. In the middle ages, and long after then, there were many small businesses engaged in farming. In fact, quite a lot of it was subsistence farming. Fortunately, textile manufacturing brought down the price of clothing from thousands of dollars per suit to far less, and industrial farming has made food (by comparison to the past) cheap and plentiful. In the course of it, this shut down many small businesses who could not compete with the scale and efficiency of larger ones, but it brings down prices for everyone - as bambax mentioned, the general public cares about prices, not how goods are provided.
In the modern age, we live better than kings did in the middle ages, with electricity, sanitation, health/vision/dental care, access to food and water, fuel, entertainment in our homes - all of the benefits of modern life come from the steadily lowering price of technology and scale and knowledge. Small businesses are not intrinsically good, and large ones are not intrinsically bad. Large businesses tend to have economies of scale and investment in technology that small do not, which brings down prices and raises the quality of living for everyone.
- venomsnake 11y agoThe problem with large business is their unfair influence over the policies of the countries. And their bordering on monopoly bargaining power. Both of whose are not entire free market friendly.
- treehau5 11y ago> These businesses went kaput when industrialization came along. You are equating to a renaissance in labor to Walmart? Industrialization brought new jobs to the table as well. If you used to be a professional seamstress, and you were replaced by a machine, you can now go learn how the machine works and go repair them for all the factories, or help them install them. More than likely you probably got paid more now because of the increased productivity. When Walmart comes into your town, and desolates your small business, you can go work for that Walmart, in a reduced role, with a fraction of the pay.
- tw04 11y agoWhich works AWESOME, as long as you either: 1. Have new jobs to shift the people who were previously doing those other jobs to. 2. You have a basic living wage that isn't treated like a handout to people who can't find work. At this point those mega-businesses are creating a lot of unemployment and that's about it.
- treehau5 11y ago> These businesses went kaput when industrialization came along. You are equating a renaissance in labor to Walmart? Industrialization brought new jobs to the table as well. If you used to be a professional seamstress, and you were replaced by a machine, you can now go learn how the machine works and go repair them for all the factories, or help them install them. More than likely you probably got paid more now because of the increased productivity. When Walmart comes into your town, and desolates your small business, you can go work for that Walmart, in a reduced role, with a fraction of the pay. edit: basically tw04's comment.