Let’s talk airlines. Discount airlines specifically, and Ryanair in particular. You see, I consider Ryanair to be the living embodiment of what is wrong with capitalism.
Ryanair is a company that doesn’t hide its nature. Ryanair is a vicious, cruel, profit-hungry monster that will do everything it can to maximise its profits. Ryanair treats its passengers worse that we treat our livestock – they extort, manipulate, cheat and deceive their paying customers in every way imaginable, often barely within the limits of the law.
If capitalism worked, customers would eschew Ryanair and choose to fly with a different airline. Capitalism, after all, boasts about the strength of market forces where consumers choose to buy from companies that offer the best product.
But Ryanair most certainly does not have the best product. It may actually have the worst imaginable product in its industry. And, contrary to popular belief, it isn’t the cheapest either. With all the fees, penalties, charges and additional costs they add on top, Ryanair fares are actually more costly than many of their rivals.
But somehow people still choose en masse to fly with Ryanair. In the midst of a global recession, with many airlines diving deep in to the red, Ryanair has reported a profit of €354 million.
Why is this so? Why do consumers choose an airline that is so obviously evil? Why do people buy a product that is so clearly and blatantly flawed?
It is because that basic foundation of capitalism – that people make rational choices – is wrong. Humans are ridiculously easy to manipulate. So easy in fact that companies like Ryanair don’t even have to pretend to be a good service provider.
On the contrary, they can even boast about being a vile, despicable airline that extorts its customers and treats their passengers like shit. Because Ryanair knows people will still buy their fares. All Ryanair needs to do is wave another one of their horrendously misleading €1 flight offers in front of the public, and their fares sell out faster than you can follow.
Ryanair has shown us more clearly than any other company that capitalism is a broken system built on a hollow foundation. Companies don’t produce the best possible products – companies produce the worst product they can get away with. Consumers don’t choose to buy the best product – consumers are manipulated in to buying shit.
Capitalism is wrong. And yet it is the most dominant form of commerce on the planet.