California Department Of Consumer Affairs

Yesterday started out as a cold rainy Friday for me when I got out of bed hungry, of all things, the Hershey bar. It must have been a sudden intense craving for that yummy chocolate taste that led me to dress quickly, grab your wallet, and, with the umbrella, walk one block often beaten path neighborhood convenience store. There I found the traditional black and white packaged candies displayed prominently among the many opponents, shouting: "Buy me, buy me." So I grabbed one and rushed hungrily at the checkout counter to find that a little bit of chocolate that I, as a child, paid 5 cents is now 79 cents. But as I was suddenly disgusted the retail price of the item, I found myself pulling out of dollars, handing the cashier, and getting back my 21 cents in change. As I left the store tearing the paper from the chocolate, it dawned on me that even if the candy was a dollar, I would probably still buy it.

, but not this how the free market works to regulate our lives according to an arbitrary value set by private industry? Perhaps the current 4.9 percent unemployment rate in America can be defined and understood better by taking snapshot of the rise and fall of arbitrary values ​​or prices set on the things the American people hold dear. As for the Hershey bar is concerned, about 6,000 employees currently work throughout the year in Hershey, Pennsylvania to produce the same kind of candy that was made almost 80 years since Milton S. Hershey. Apparently, the quality and quantity of the original Hershey chocolate has not changed over the years, but the price certainly is not.

When I was a kid, I regularly collect soda pop bottles from the county road in east Texas. People then usually to buy a Dr. pepper and Coca-Cola in ten ounce glass bottles, drink them while driving, and throw them out of their cars in the grass uncut. This is my preference, because in an hour I could find ten or more of these bottles and sell them back to stores for their deposits, then 10 cents per bottle. With my pockets bulging with dimes and quarters at the end of the summer day, I'd pay a visit to the candy case, my local grocery store. With a dollar or more of my bottles, I would go to the mall with ten or more Hershey, Butterfinger, or Mars bars in a paper bag. That's when the chocolate bars 5-10 cents each during the 1950's and 60's. At the current selling price of 79 cents, Hershey bar, with the same size and contents of the tape produced in 1955, has increased 1500 percent in value. Does that surprise you, or you're usually willing to say: "What is the difference? Everything is going to cost, and I would buy the dollar ."

a bitter issue festering in the back of mind to everyone, whether they want to admit it or not, is, "Is the price really have to go up, if the quantity and quality of the product are the same as they were in 1955?" The answer is one that almost all hard-nosed capitalists would rather not care to expound on. Most of it will remain in obscurity, blowing in the wind Bob Dillon. However, free markets and continue to paint strange beast that constantly seeks its existence, in accordance with their widely different appetite, regardless of who and what it spends on the road. You may be wondering, if I copy the above description of free-market capitalism from some old book of aphorisms socialist. No, this is the original that I have thoroughly considered before it is enlisting in this essay. It is predicated on the fundamental principle of human nature, greed. For example, grizzly bear, by instinct, to kill and eat smaller creatures just to survive and feed their mlade.Ljudsko being, on the other hand, will prey on their own kind by premeditated design to be more than needed to adequately there. In fact, man is only specie that will kill the species, as well as other species, to be more comfortable živi.Očajni thief who ends by killing in order to steal money or valuables street was different this stvorenje.Poduzeća Wall Street type of animal is elusive species that will prey on victims from the middle of the apartments, always pretending to be what works best for them and the economy. All the while, for the victims of this Company predators to chase around in the middle class and lower middle-class existence is exactly what we are conditioned to do.

After I was shot down feverishly bought a Hershey bar, tasting his 79 cents of enthusiasm, I am sitting at my desk holding the No. 2 Dixon Ticonderoga pencil. I had it sharpened to do some math calculations. Suddenly I thought of something quite profound. Although I paid 3 cents in 1960 to pen and quality, the same type of pen, just a week ago, we had only 4 cents. There was something very revealing in this respect that seemed to jump out at me. Why is the candy bar has increased 1500 percent in 49 years, while the pen is increased only 1.3 percent? Omnipresent principle of free market economy that is at work here is the essence of public demand and how greedy capitalist can get away from the popularity of the product. Although it currently takes the same amount of ingredients, as he did 49 years ago, to the same Hershey bar, candy is considered to be worth 1500 percent more now than then. Is it because the price of sugar, chocolate and other ingredients in the bar significantly increased? Number Price constituents are gone so much, not 1500 percent. Candy making can currently buy their ingredients in a large, rather than pay, but 10 percent more than they paid in 1960.Ukupni cost of production of candy is not gone more than 25 percent.

In relation to the pen, you can clearly see that the content and quality of basic Ticonderoga No. 2 is the same as it was in 1960.Trošak the production may perhaps have increased 5 percent or less. However, the popularity of pen did not increase even at 49 years Hershey has bar.Bombona maker knows that people enjoy eating candy than using a pencil. That's why countless millions of dollars are spent by the candy companies each year to advertise their fast consumable products. They know that the American public will pay 79 cents for a Hershey bar, even if it is really only worth maybe less than 20 cents. However, while everyone can not eat sweets due to health problems, the entire U.S. population uses the pen. However, I can not remember the last billboard I saw advertising pens, although you can probably find at least one in every American home, school and office.

What to do with the current unemployment crisis? Well, the American capitalists are driven by profits for the production and delivery of their products. This is the amount of money they received for the product at the cost of production is oduzeti.Vrhunac American capitalism is finding the maximum price for which the product can offer that will be accepted readily by consumers. In the same way the cost of something can be artificially raised in order to maximize profits, the number of employees needed for production can be arbitrarily reduced for the same reason. For example, high rates of unemployment during the Great Depression occurred, although the production of essential products in the nation and dalje.Trgovinama continue selling these products, although it was not so much international trgovini.Bogati people in the country, those with money to spend, continue to live their lavish style života.Određeni percentage of the workforce is kept to ensure this level of production. That production levels arbitrarily increased by a corporate CEO at that time, unemployment would have significantly reduced.

Today, the government is to increase employment over time, the private sector. This means that the enforcement of federal, state and local governments use the money to pay the tax, expanding the number of payroll. Although tax revenue is not earned, but collected from taxpayers, private sector basically pays for continued expansion of government. Meanwhile, the private sector is reducing its workforce to maximize their profits. It makes no sense if the cost of increased government infrastructure is the same or higher than the cost of increased corporate production. What I mean is that the private sector, capitalist enterprises, can successfully manipulate the level of unemployment in the country the same way can arbitrarily increase the price of 1500 per cent of the popular products. They do this knowing that the American public will continue to buy products at exorbitant prices, and will look forward to doing so. And when they announce that 36,000 or more employees must be laid-off to maintain a certain level of production, an unemployed worker will accept obedience to his fate and condition as inevitable. It is unfortunate condition of the American public through the media.

Is it democratic socialism is a better way to ensure the quality of life for the average American worker? I look at Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand and asked that the large corporate profits are more important than government provision of health care and basic life worthy of the population. These people can not have a GDP in the United States or a large military-industrial complex, which consumes the largest percentage of the federal budget to maintain a war machine, but given the quality of life for its citizens. In the long run, the supremacy of the nation-state does not determine its international status, but rather by its ability to provide their own. Maybe it's time to get as much public value of health and employment as well as the almighty Hershey bar. Maybe if we increase the value of the end of 1500 percent of the expensive health care, the mandate of our Constitution to promote the general welfare will be rapidly implemented. At the same time, maybe Hershey bar prices will come down. I would hope.