Now that you have looked at the 10 big companies that own so many of the brands that you know so well, think about what kind of problems it can create if so few companies own so much. Think about competition, pricing, health, advertising,creativity.
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If the 10 companies fight for the most income, the prices for the products will keep getting higher and higher. A small part of the human population will be rich while the other big part will be very poor. Or, to get more money, companies will chop down more trees to make paper for money and the Earth will be polluted.
ReplyDeleteAn important point you have made Sherina, is the environment. These companies are so big and make so much money, so people want these companies around. But do you know who is making sure that these companies are not destroying the environment? What about who checks that their workers get a fair salary? Do you know who would do that?
DeleteCompanies will raise their prices for their product depending on who owns them. And if they are in the market as an independent companies, their demand prices might go up. this could effect the quality of a product. the amount of the product and price of it.
ReplyDeleteYou have made a good point here Namitha - business depends on supply and demand and a certain quality of the product. But actually big business have been working out ways to make their products cheaper (like using palm oil) and worse for our health (like diet soft drinks which use a type of poison instead of sugar) - so the quality is worse - but they can keep making the price higher. How can they get away with this do you think?
DeleteIf 10 companies gets a lots of them and had fight each others they will keep the price lower, and if they doesn't have income very well because they sell products really low price, they can't give them a salary. So they will fire some people and they will be unemployed people. And they will get less income because they have no money. (because they can't have a salary.) So they will sell lower price and fire people everydays, they will get close the company one by one and there will be no more companies which makes some chocolates and candy. That means we can't buy candy or chocolate anymore.
ReplyDeleteWow Jun, this is a doomsday scenario - no chocolates and candies! What are the good things about chocolates and candies? They are bad for your body, bad for your teeth, give people diseases and destroy the environment from their plastic packaging. So why are they so hard to resist?
DeleteBecause they are tasty and they are easy to find and they are cheap. (I think so)
DeleteIf one company owns many brands, their products will look a bit similar to each other. That means their creativity can't get better. One brand might copy another brand's idea.
ReplyDeleteThey definitely copy each other's ideas and try and look like one is better than the other. How can the person who buys stuff decide which is the better product? What kind of things should they think about?
DeleteThere are only 10 massive companies fighting each other to earn the most income so they will try to make their commercials and products more creative. Now many people are sucked into the big company's product because the product is getting better and better everyday.
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DeleteIs it getting better and better? What if the company is making even more products because they use cheaper products like palm oil which destroys the environment? Who can stop a company from destroying the environment when they get so big?
DeleteSince one big company owns so much, like Jenny mentioned, they get very similar stuff to each other. The companies will start to compete against each for more customers so they make more and more advertisements and other stuff they can sell. At one point sometime we might not have any choice to chose for ourselves at all, especially the next generation who grow up with all the media and new stuff. And it's not very good for our health if we sit and see all new movies or TV programs all the time.
ReplyDeleteIt is definitely true Alice that the advertising campaigns are out of control - just everywhere, and not just on the television but everywhere we look. What are some effects do you think, of constantly being bombarded with advertisements? How might this effect how we think?
DeleteIf one company does something really wrong or go bankrupt all the things they manage also have problems and might not have enough resources to run the business and they will be shut down as well.
ReplyDeleteThe aim of all of these companies is to make money - they make stuff which we don't need, like candies and soft drink, and people buy it. Why do you think people buy things like candy and soft drink even though there are no health benefits at all, and they actually cost more money in dentists and doctors after you consume them?
DeleteWell, they try it at first because in advertisements, the companies make these products look better than they actually are. They keep buying these things because they, a long with a lot of other people just love the taste and it probably would taste much better than the healthy stuff.
DeleteThere are many problems about only having 10 main companies in-charge of all these brand/companies. Like how there are not many jobs to offer and how they are all very similar to each other. Its like a chain reaction if the leading company has problems then the other companies will collapse.
ReplyDeleteGood point Indah. They definitely provide a lot of jobs, though many of them do a lot of business in countries like Indonesia, where they don't have to pay people very much money. Why do you think companies like to make their products in countries where it is cheap to hire people?
DeleteIf the ten big companies fail, the small companies/brands will fail as well. So if the Big company fails then millions of people will lose their jobs.
ReplyDeleteWhat if the big companies get bigger and bigger? Who is in charge or who is to blame if something goes wrong? Who is to blame if it is found out that drinking too much coke is actually poisonous, for example?
ReplyDeleteIf the companies get bigger and bigger, more products will be made and more advertising for the new products. The compettition between the companies wil get worse. The companies will get to a point that nothing matters except for the money they make (including what happens to normal people, like us). They might make a product that could harm us or the earth in a significantly large way and tell lies about it in the power of advertising.
DeleteWhat an insightful answer Jess, and you are right as we do have to be careful about such large companies. The bigger they get, the more power they get and they may not always use that power to look after us, our health and our planet!
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