Wednesday, October 6, 2021

The Impossibility Of Perpetual Corporate Expansion

There are only so many people alive on Earth at a given point in time.  From a business standpoint, this means that there is always a limited number of possible consumers.  Perhaps the global population could increase, but there is still a fixed number of people who could pay for something they want from any company, and from this comes a very important truth: it is actually rather stupid for business owners and executives to seek constantly expanding revenue because such a thing is impossible.  Yes, the exact limits of what would be close to maximum revenue might change from year to year or decade to decade, but there is always, at any moment, a specific number of people who can buy and limited financial resources for them to use.

When a streaming service or supplier reaches the global level and has to compete with other entrenched businesses, there is little they can do beyond entice existing customers to stay and perhaps try to lure away consumers from competitors.  There is a finite pool of consumers and, oftentimes, only a smaller portion of that total pool is really within plausible reach of a given company.  At this point, instead of trying to raise prices to force more profit out of current consumers, which reeks of petty desperation to make as much money as possible when there is already more than enough revenue to lead to profit, simply accepting the fact that money is an asinine thing to live for due to being a social construct and that there is no such thing as truly endless business expansion is the rational response.

Despite the increasingly vehement societal trends in the West that oppose everything from the needless hoarding of wealth as employees receive far less than executives to the elevation of money in general above human wellbeing, many businesses seem intent on expanding when it is already far more difficult to do so than before.  The world is connected by travel and technology in spite of the COVID-19 pandemic, so global business strongholds are already possible.  It would be very difficult to find an entire market or category or products (as opposed to subcategories) that has not been targeted to a significant extent, so it is not as if there are new product avenues to be explored that are not twists on or innovations of what has already been made or sold before.

It is one thing for the leaders of a business to take measures which ensure their products or services can stay afloat and maintain their financial status quo for the sake of the consumers, employees, and executives without being driven by greed or the false idea that there is always a way to expand revenue without irritating consumers (which makes constant price increases for the sake of more profit off the table for anyone who does not want to estrange buyers).  It is absolutely idiotic to try to do that which anyone who simply thought about the matter without assumptions can know is logically impossible.  There is always by necessity a limited maximum number of consumers and a limited amount of money those consumers can spend.

It is not just immoral on the Christian worldview to seek personal monetary gain as an executive or employee at the expense of other concerns.  Regardless of whether Christianity is true, it is literally irrational to think that there is endless potential for corporate expansion, much less increases in profits without alienating the very consumers without which there would be no revenue at all!  It is neither difficult to recognize these facts at least when pushed in the right direction by circumstances or others (though people could come to this truth just by reflection without immediate prompting) nor impossible to live without pretending like irrational goals for business are valid.  All it takes is consistent rationality.

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