Someone recently tried to hijack a post about kite board companies being crap with a quote that is the subject of this thread. ( the entire quote is too long for the subject line )
There is a long history of many, many kite companies failing. Is this due to "a race to the bottom" or is it due to consumers controlling the market through the power of the purse?
I thought it interesting that consumers of capitalist products are openly discussing companies in various ways (customer support, product quality, production delays, etc). Also, that in a free market economy they have the freedom to decide what companies they will and will not buy from based solely upon their freedom of choice. And someone, clearly with a misunderstanding of economics, makes the particular remark in the subject of this thread.
It can also be argued that capitalist economics has less to do with the dilemma than Comparative Advantage created through international open-trade agreements - that even declared socialist economies use to their advantage.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparative_advantage
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capitalism
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marxism
Bottom line for me I guess: I want good companies to succeed and I want to buy my kites as cheaply as I can from one of those good companies. That seems win-win as long as I can identify the "good companies"