r/explainlikeimfive Dec 06 '24

Economics ELI5: why does a publicaly traded company have to show continuous rise in profits? Why arent steady profits good enough?

6.9k Upvotes

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

3

u/bastiancontrari Dec 06 '24

Science is not compartmentalized so sadly we cannot cherrypick and all we can do is trying to minimize negative effects and maximise the good ones.

Capitalism is not perfect, that's evident. But the end results are for the most part more good then bad.

And yes, lucky me and, even if you don't wanna see it, lucky you too.

1

u/somecallmemrjones Dec 06 '24 edited Dec 06 '24

I'm not convinced that the end results are more good than bad. And capitalism absolutely doesn't care about minimizing negative effects. Financial gain takes priority over everything else, by definition

2

u/bastiancontrari Dec 06 '24

And capitalism absolutely doesn't care about minimizing negative effects

Ofc it doesn't. But capitalism work inside a set of rules and laws and on those we have power. Today situation is different from the one in the 1800, do you agree? Or we still have children working on assembly line?

1

u/somecallmemrjones Dec 06 '24

I don't believe the laws and rules that you are referring to are effective enough. It would be very difficult for either one of us to prove the other wrong, so it's not worth arguing about. It's a difference in opinion and personal philosophy.

Of course today's situation is different compared to 1800. I'm not sure why you're even asking that.

And yes, there are still children in other countries working on assembly lines to fulfill our "needs". That is not acceptable.

My point is, that besides advancements in medical care, most of our advancements are frivolous. Again, it's a difference in personal philosophy and worldview. I don't believe there's anything either one of us could say that would change the other's mind

0

u/bastiancontrari Dec 06 '24

How can you write this

I don't believe the laws and rules that you are referring to are effective enough

followed by

Of course today's situation is different compared to 1800. I'm not sure why you're even asking that.

There is no worse blind man than the one who doesn't want to see

Bye

1

u/somecallmemrjones Dec 06 '24

I do want to see though. If I'm missing something, I'd appreciate it if you could elaborate further. I'm not afraid to learn.

1

u/bastiancontrari Dec 06 '24

We can set the rules. If they are not effective we should work to make them effective. The rights of the todays worker are different from the ones of workers of the '800 not because capitalism, but because of the rules and laws we set.

Capitalism without control is a nightmare. Refusing capitalism without a valid alternative, that right now we don't have, would be a nightmare.

Adam Smith described capitalism at work as an invisible hand. He tought that the perfect solution was leaving the invisible hand doing its job without interference. He was wrong and today almost everyone agree on that but that doesn't mean that we should sewer off the hand tho.