This is really a simple, every day picture. It’s beautiful. I’m not referring to the sapphire blue Carolina sky, though that’s beautiful as well. It’s the FedEx and UPS trucks parked side by side at my client’s place of business. Just prior to taking this picture, the FedEx delivery van driver was hustling out the door carrying a large box. She ran into her van and drove off before I snapped the picture. The tractor trailers from both UPS and FedEx were already parked at loading docks. Within minutes of the FedEx delivery van leaving, the UPS delivery van pulled up. You can barely see it in this picture, parked to the left of the FedEx trailer. Here are two international businesses vigorously competing for my client’s business. The fierce competition forces each one to drive down prices and innovate. Akin to an arms race, it’s a “service race.”
In this “service race,” the companies “battle” by trying to out-serve the other. The story on how the UPS representative managed to get some of the business away from FedEx is funny and heartwarming. And there’s the reality of capitalism, survival in the “struggle” of a competitive marketplace means understanding and serving others — your customers. Absolutely contrary to what Marxist twits write into too many of the television and movie scripts, corporations don’t succeed by being greedy, self-centered, and evil. To the contrary, success requires exactly the opposite – delivering the best value possible to the consumer, understanding and anticipating the consumer’s wants and needs, and being trustworthy. Brands that fail these standards ultimately fail to survive.
Markets function because they satisfy human needs. To the extent those “needs” can become perverted and twisted, the market can (and does) deliver evil. Further, markets depend on fallen people for production and consumption. Accordingly, like any human institution, markets are fallible and make mistakes. However, companies that fail to correct mistakes in a timely manner fail to survive. Further, consumers can be fooled, but where information is freely exchanged, the consumer eventually learns and corrects his or her behaviour.
Democracy operates on similar principles. Politicians provide what voters want. Too often, politicians “advertise” one set of policies, but govern according to another once elected. When that happens and voters realize it, corrective action should occur. President Obama ran for election on platitudes that sounded centrist. As it turns out, he is in no way a moderate when it comes to domestic policy. President Obama is the most statist, big government president since FDR and perhaps in the history of this Country. At least during the FDR administrations, the country was in a World War and centralised economic planning had not yet been exposed as a complete failure. Six decades later, no one should be falling for the lie and false promises of centralized planning. As aptly pointed out by D.O.M., we shouldn’t even fall for the lie of Euro-socialism. Let’s hope and pray that this November, enough political consumers, ie voters, will learn from their mistakes, take corrective measures, and vote the Euro-socialists out of office.
Sapphire Sky 