Profiting From Misfortune

The very nature of business is that the problems of consumers provide opportunities for services and products that can alleviate or perhaps altogether solve the issue.  As individual people try to buy something to remedy isolated instances of problems in their lives, they might forget or wholly overlook the fact that this is what the entirety of business hinges upon.  This is not automatically an exploitative or negative thing, as will be addressed; it is just a truth that is often never realized amidst blind consumerism or one that is misunderstood to be an inherent moral flaw of not just how some businesses could be operated, but of business itself.  It is this that makes businesses and consumers so powerful in their dealings with each other if only they will embrace it, for each has something the other needs or wants, though the bleak landscape of the American business world is usually not structured to honor the fact that nothing about this has to degrade either party.

 

Almost all jobs or services do very overtly, inevitably depend on other people having some sort of problem or at least suboptimal circumstance that needs to be resolved.  Without this, there would be neither a need for most businesses to exist nor anything for consumers to go to them for in the first place.  Even when a dire need is not in view, such as in cases of wanting something that meant more for leisure or additional comfort of living, the "problem" is having the desire for the product or service that a person does not need but still wishes to buy, although this is a very different problem to have than, say, an electrical socket not working or a clogged sink.  Unless a person is carelessly or intentionally spending money just to spend it, not even caring what it is spent on, all consumer activity and product or service offerings from businesses are ultimately about rectifying a problem or satisfying a desire.

An insect infestation in a house, a malfunctioning car, a lack of security systems, and so on either are problems or could easily lead to them, and thus an array of options are there to handle each by paying for a solution.  Exterminators, tutors, mechanics, and more would not be able to profit unless there were actual misfortunes that had befallen other people--or their clients are just insistent on having a given product/service despite it offering them no major advantage or there not being a problem to resolve.  This is not exploration, as neither party necessarily has any malice or selfishness or desire to use the other party as if they are nothing more than a means to a personal end.  However, it is the nature of business.  If there was no practical need or personal desire, there would be neither sellers nor buyers.

Not all business, once again, is itself exploitative of consumers, for it actually enables some problems to be fully addressed and does not have to involve any cruelty or selfishness on the part of the people selling products and services (or performing the services).  Profiting from misfortune can be mutually beneficial to both sides as long as there is no egoism or dehumanization involved.  Additionally, when done right, this process does allow for both parties to prosper beyond what they might ever have achieved otherwise.  It is the system of American capitalism that prompts some people to pervert this by creating products meant to break after a given time or work less effectively in order to convince people they need a replacement product, among other things.  These excesses are where selling solutions to various misfortunes becomes egoistic, avaricious, and dehumanizing to practically everyone involved.