Capitalism is easy, facts are hard

Capitalism is great, except for you-know-who, and we’re overdue for a break from you-know-what, if only for this month. Welcome to 2025 and hold on tight…

• Schrodinger’s facts. There’s a new type of memory evolving in my head lately: a holding cell for stuff I’ve read once or twice and cannot verify. I used to think the stuff I read was true (insert raucous laughter here) and just throw it into the I-Know-Everything box. Now, I need both a space for rejects and a giant chunk of brain space for the items that are merely questionable. Lately, it’s filling up at a disturbingly rapid rate.
• Having writ, moves on. When I got my driver’s license, I stopped wondering what it would be like to have a driver’s license. When I had kids, I stopped wondering what it would be like to have kids. Things change, you start living in the new reality, and you discard the stuff that’s past its expiration date. And yet, I still see all kinds of otherwise sane people posting comments that they were making before November 5. Let it go, if only for another couple of weeks. 
• Make more. Capitalism is under attack by all sorts of people online, but it’s important to recognize that not all capitalists are the same. Manufacturers think about how to make the product better and sell more of it, while finance people want to make the product cheaper so they can grab more profit per unit. A big chunk of our challenges over the past few decades flows from the defeat of manufacturing guys at the hands of the financial people.
• Burying the costs. And, on the same subject, that’s why it’s so dangerous to have private equity in health care. Diminishing the product adds profit margin and, even better, the people who bear the cost don’t show up on any income statements. It’s a win/win. For them.
• Buy bye. And, on the same subject, again, insurance coverage is different from pretty much every business in the universe, because its profit model depends on not delivering the product the customer bought. A shoe store that refuses to hand over your Nikes will fail pretty quickly, but an insurer that refuses a claim can grow pretty well. Even better, the people who bear the cost don’t show up on any income statements. It’s a win/win. For them.
• Come back next decade. Why are all the previews at the movie theater promoting films that won’t be out for 3-6 months? What marketing genius decided they have another 50 movies showing within 300 feet of where I’m sitting, but they should never hype the ones people could actually see today?
• Amortizing ads. And while we’re on the subject of movie previews, the latest set I sat through added up to 30 minutes and some of them played twice. Somebody in accounting is determined to get their money’s worth from all the money they spent on these things, even if every customer decides never to return.
• Who you? When you’re driving a 20-year-old car, you listen to a lot of AM radio, including the talk-radio hosts who can riff for hours about the greatest evils in our society. (Spoiler alert: It’s the Democrats.) When I’ve checked out their resumes, though, none of them is really that big an expert on anything related to their hosting gig. The transmitter offers credibility, but I get as much substance from the guy with the megaphone outside the drug store.

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