Capitalists and workers seek the best POSSIBLE price, but the best possible is, of course, not always the best. Your example of a capitalist who has a profit opportunity but foregoes it for no apparent reason is extraordinary, and defies the logic of capitalism - what do the shareholders think? Your example of workers wanting better pay and conditions but fearing employer reprisals and job loss in a union organizing drive is, alas, not all that unusual.
------------------------- Eubulides wrote: > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Marvin Gandall" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Well, the Jews and the Scots have also been prominently mentioned. :) I'm > still looking to meet the capitalist - of any nationality - who doesn't > want > to get the best possible price for his or her product, or the worker who > doesn't want to get the same for his or her labour. > > MG > > ----- > > Due to interminable miseducation/study of philosophy, I'm having a bit of > trouble, also based on working with lots of members of the working class, > with what you mean by *best*. I've seen thousands of co-workers sit > quietly for years while their real wage eroded and tremble at the thought > of organizing into a union. I've seen corporate managers *cut* profit > margins to the bone vis a vis customers when they clearly had the upper > hand in bargaining and could come up with no reasonable justification on > static or dynamic grounds for doing so. I think we might have to take a > bit more seriously Herbert Simon's notions of satisficing and bounded > rationality and do some comparative empirical work across cultures on > price bargaining.
