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Simple non-growth-based capitalist endeavor that I've been daydreaming about (setting up a supermarket as an example): The goal of Supermarket(SM) is to provid
by fifnir 7y ago
Simple non-growth-based capitalist endeavor that I've been daydreaming about (setting up a supermarket as an example):
The goal of Supermarket(SM) is to provide products to customers and a stable occupation
for those working in the system, not to maximize profit.
SM will only sell to subscribed members.
Whenever someone buys something, they pay only the cost of the product, and the purchase is recorded.
At the end of each month, SM has to balance its finances: costs have to be equalized with income.
We will charge our members an additional % over whatever they bought for this month, just as much as it's needed to balance the books. The more customers we have and the more volume we moved, the less % everyone has to pay.
This way, instead of customers paying a predetermined % margin for each product, they pay as little as it's needed to keep things going. They don't pay for anyone's profit.
- frozen11b 7y agoSound like an interesting twist in co-OP comoany
- didgeoridoo 7y agoIt sounds precisely like a grocery co-op. Are these not common where you live? https://www.moneycrashers.com/food-coop-costs-benefits-drawbacks/ https://www.moneycrashers.com/food-coop-costs-benefits-drawb...
- fifnir 7y agoNot in my corner of the world unfortunately
- dgellow 7y agoThe two largest grocery chains in Switzerland are both cooperatives (they together represent ~70% of retail): - Coop (that's the name) has https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coop_(Switzerland) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coop_(Switzerland) - Migros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migros https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Migros
- gtirloni 7y agoExcept for the cost equalization, this looks like co-op supermarkets. They seem to work pretty well where I live but the focus on low cost means sometimes they don't have a lot of variety. I wonder if a government could make this work at the national level, in multiple industries.
- fifnir 7y ago> I wonder if a government could make this work at the national level, in multiple industries. Exactly, a government would have the means to centralize this concept and make it extremely powerful. Instead of just a supermarket working on this principle, the whole distribution network could do it. I'm looking forward to the torrent of downvotes without any meaningful debate, just cause I suggested that the government does something (bUt tHATs cOmUniSM!?!)
- aSplash0fDerp 7y agoWhats the incentive for government to get food, water, energy, education and shelter right? If we're missing any one of the five, we have insecurity and chaos usually ensues. That environment appears to be the soup du jour that allows lobbyist and others to do their bidding and force/sneak in their agendas. I think it was mentioned, but cycling thru calamity (the business cycle) with F,W,E,E and S until they hit their metrics is becoming a predictable sh!t show.
- Unsimplified 7y agoHere's a perspective shift. Profit is just a term for the owners' wages. Grocery store revenue paid to anyone, employee or owner, are all at risk of not "closing the loop". Thus, profit is not the problem, though concentrating it at the top does usually slow the flow. The real equalization problem involves everyone.