Beats: The Main Cause Of The Great Recession

The top ten percent wealthiest people consume around sixty percent of the world’s resources (Christensen). Since the Great Recession of 2008, the economic wealth has spread more and more unevenly across the social classes of America. The creation of free-market capitalism and advertising has sprouted huge and valuable brand-name assets, who have since evolved to resort to the cheapest method that produces the best ‘good enough’ quality product. Figureheads everywhere have begun to put personal gain before welfare and happiness of the general population.
Beats by Dr. Dre are a big-name brand of audio headphones, and also a great example. Beats Studios over-ear headphones cost a whopping $14 to manufacture, but sell for upwards of $400. Corporate

is the Great Recession. The Great Recession lasted from December 2007 to June 2009, or so officials say. This event was ultimately an enormous “bursting of the ~$8 billion dollar house bubble” which led to severe deprivation of consumer purchase. Without the income and stability of financial economy, the business market essentially caved in. The minor recessions of the 90’s took an average of ten months to gain back the jobs it had lost; The Great Recession has yet to re-employ all the people that lost their jobs, let alone keep up with the growing population. The economy is not growing as fast as the rest of the world (Schuman). In 2010, intermediate workers earned an average of $33,121 annually while head honchos at large firms took home $10.8 million on average. That equates to ~325 times more than their employees, while in the ‘70s, CEOs only earned thirty times as much. The leaders of the economy are inflating their own pay exponentially, while their employees are stuck in the middle (Magdoff). The main reason that political and business corruption comes about is the pursuit of personal gain and benefits of partnering corporations, rather than the goodwill of the consumer and the general public

The main school of thought on the “shared value” solution is the concept that what benefits society, can also benefit business. For example, if a company can produce a product that vastly cuts down on energy consumption and cost, society will see that as a beneficial asset and, as a result, said company will rake in the profits from the contribution. It’s a classic win-win, everyone takes something home type of case. The real attraction of shared value comes from the fact that nothing major needs to change within the structure of capitalism. There only needs to be a shift in values so that we can transfer over all the way to a healthier, more fuel efficient society. This would’ve been very effective in the last century. Unfortunately, in today’s market, the vendor has lost it’s power, and now the consumer is in control of the market, not the vendor. The results of this new power shift has caused the “we make it, you take it” standpoint to fail miserably. Shared value can only be effective if the seller has a say in what will be a staple product, and can sway the buyers’ interest to channel consumption into a few select