The $700M razorblade: extreme capitalism is still extremism
I was up late last night defending one of my favourite theories: that unrestrained, any social, political or religious movement goes bad. Islamic extremism is everybody’s #1 extremism in my community at the moment, but I contend that Scientology, Christianity, Evolution and even (shudder) Capitalism can go bad and start to do more evil than good when let off the leash.
Don’t think I converted anybody to my view last night, but on the train into the city this morning, deep in my RSS feeds, was this perfect example in a story by The Guardian.
I always suspected new generations of men’s razor blades were expensive to develop but assumed most of that was spent in market research and advertising. I never suspected that it might cost hundreds of millions of dollars in technical research and development, or that product design labs for razors might be better funded and equipped than NASA labs.
Why? In essence, because the market for razors is dominated by only two brands, and because there is so much money to be made selling razors. Because capitalism, left unrestrained, goes bad as quickly as Islam or Communism.
Good spend of $700m, you think? What if the same
money had been invested in a renewable energy technology, or sustainable agriculture, or funding a peace-keeping force in Sudan? …or just about anything else?
