Fair prices and fair profit?

Some time ago I wrote a blog post about the problems with unfettered capitalism. The basic theme was that capitalism is a fine and efficient system for wealth-creation but there have to be legal, moral and cultural checks and balances in place to ensure that profits are not excessive, customers are not ripped off and the future of these private companies can be sustained.

I’m not vain enough to assume that anyone read this post (except for possibly my mother) but, if you’ll forgive the narcissism, some of the themes I mentioned seem to have been thrust back in the spotlight during the last 24-48 hours.

On Wednesday, British Gas somewhat unwisely decided to have a live Q&A session on Twitter and invited Tweeple to post questions. Tweeple did not disappoint, and the British Gas twitter feed was submerged under a veritable tidal wave of piss and vinegar, sarcasm and derision. Put simply, British Gas got a kicking for raising energy prices (again!) at a time when the cost of living is still increasing, salaries are at best static and a growing number of families are sliding towards the breadline.

This got me thinking about the nature of poverty. I’ve never had first-hand experience of genuine poverty. I’ve had to opt for the supermarket own-brand beer on occasions, but that’s about as bad as it’s been. I certainly can’t comprehend what it must be like not knowing how to pay the next rent bill or put the next meal on the table. Most people, especially those with a left-of-centre political opinion, would agree that reducing the gap between the richest and poorest in any society is a good thing. That’s something to aim for and work towards, surely? Which makes the performance of those politicians on the panel of BBC’s Question Time show last night all the more depressing. The middle classes are not the biggest victims of this financial climate in any way, shape or form; our house prices are still rising even if our salaries are not. We might be having fewer meals out and cutting back a bit on the weekly wine but we’re not being thrown out on to the street and we’re certainly not dying. By trying to perpetuate this myth that it’s the middle classes bearing the brunt of increased living costs, the political classes are doing us all a great disservice and completely failing to offer any new or imaginative solutions to the problem.

I’m not suggesting that renationalisation of the utility companies is in any way a solution, but the politicos are perplexed and seem to have nothing new to offer. Meanwhile, the energy companies keep on ramping up the costs and making vague threats about ‘the lights going out’ if their profit margins are in any way limited through political intervention and legislation.

To repeat the final thought of my previous post, how much profit is enough and how can this cabal of companies continue to operate in a way that places shareholders rather than customers at the heart of their operations?