https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2023/08/28/the-big-turnaround-how-europes-gas-prices-fell-from-300-to-35-mwh-in-the-span-of-a-year
One year ago, European politicians were in a state of panic watching wholesale gas prices break all-time records. #EuropeNews
Good lord that isn't how commodity prices work. There's no cabal with complete control over global oil and gas prices. There are groups with varied interests depending on the amount and quality of oil they possess, but even that gets complicated. It boils down to what is on the market and how it's bought and sold on contracts by global energy traders. Yes, OPEC and Saudi Arabia have some power over prices by increasing and decreasing supply on the market, but that's been reduced with how much supply has come online over the years in the US and Canada. Russian supply cuts to Europe had a pretty obvious ripple effect, but after a year or so, supplies and relative demand have shifted. This reductionist take is so tiring and is such an obvious sign of lack of understanding how commodities markets, and quite likely economies themselves, actually work in the real world. It sounds almost as crazy as the right wing conspiracies about global cabals.
Companies are driven by humans. And humans do greed very well. And our system is excellent at lifting up the greediest ones to the positions of power that could maybe not form the cabal. But do the 'human see other earn more, human do' thing.
Companies are driven by capitalism. And capitalism does greed very well. And capitalism is excellent at lifting up the greediest ones to the positions of power that could maybe not form the cabal.
FTFY
capitalism hasn't gotten all of us (not sure what that last sentence means, but if you're implying envy of those literally holding humanity ransom for profit, you could not be more wrong, but you are telling on yourself) nor is the behaviours it encourages and breeds "natural":
https://theconversation.com/humans-arent-inherently-selfish-were-actually-hardwired-to-work-together-144145
How is it telling, and of what? I think I got a good grasp of the socioeconomics of capitalism, and how it is moving our society in a (for me unwanted) direction.
And I agree, we humans are naturally wired to cooperate. However, unfortunately also by nature's design, we humans are all on a bell curve. The x-axis in this case is empathy/greed. And since we are with 8 billion, we got a lot of people that can land on either end tails of this curve.
I am just claiming that our current economic system encourages greed and lack of empathy. And has the tendency to get these greedy people on the tail end in positions of money. And unfortunately, in capitalism money=(political) power.
And please, don't deny the existence of people that have sociopathic or psychopathic tendencies. Those that do not feel social obligations beyond what they self require. That do not have the sympathetic wiring we all have on top of the bell curve.
And don't deny that corporations in capitalism aren't led by HUMANS. It is always a bunch of humans making calls about their policies and practices. They could decide any time to do better, but just don't.
Some are either born with a lack of empathy in their genes, or are raised to have all empathy be purged out of them. Or simply be given the idea that others below them don't deserve their empathy.
We would have a much more empathetic and social world if we were not susceptible to either not having or losing our empathy. And let greed fester.
My last sentence was about this uplifting mechanism. I was trying to neither confirm nor deny the existence of a cabal. I totally see that a cabal existing is most likely. But I also have fallen for the pit called 'attributing malice to incompetence and stupidity' many times which has left me in miserable states of mind that are not healthy or productive for change. To not just assume total organized malice: I just assume jealousy and greed of those who can actually make decisions on pricing.
That the greedy nature that some of us have, and many more have the higher you go in a corporate ladder. Those some that also have a tendency to rise up in our capitalistic society, are sometimes selfish self centered humans. That do get jealous that other peers are earning more than they are. That their company is not part of FANG. That they think they deserve the same, or even more, as they work 'so hard, harder than anyone else'. While just blatantly being out of touch with what actual hard work is.
That is my stance. Maybe a little too condensed to just 'monkey see, monkey do'.
BTW, I do believe this is also a problem with communism. That it has never been able to progress beyond the 'oppression of the proletariat'-aka dictatorship-stage. Because there are always some people who see themselves as more important, or more equal, than others and deserving of more power or rewards than others. They also have a hard time letting go of that power. It takes just a few in positions of power, and the dictatorship is set to last and never transition to the stage beyond dictatorial-communism.
Very fair take on moral philosophy, but what does that actyally have to do with how commodity prices work??
That we humans have made up money, and the market. That the notion of the 'invisible hand of the market' being an unbiased force, is actually a bunch of humans who have their vices and virtues move that hand. We have a system that tends to raise people up that are more greedy. Those that justify the existence of 'catch-up profits' to correct lost margins.