When Profit Crosses The Line

When it comes to business, the main goal is to make a profit. No one wakes up one day and decides to spend all their savings starting a business just to break even or run at a loss. But the question is, where do we draw the line between making profit and maintaining fairness. In the world we live in today, business owners do not care about humanity, fairness or integrity. As long as they keep making money, then they are good to go. A very good example to use are the commercial cabs and buses in my school. Normally, each cab is supposed to carry four passengers. One passenger in front and three at the back. But because the drivers want to make more profit, they carry more than that. You’ll see 6 people squeezed inside the small cab. The cab drivers load 2 passengers in front and 4 at the back and what is even more annoying is that they still collect the same price. I mean, shouldn't they at least reduce the price if they are going to carry more passengers?

This particular issue is not only limited to cab drivers, other business owners also extort people simply because we don’t have a choice but to patronize them. From gadget sellers, to commercial buses, and even market women. This brings me to today’s Hive Learner’s topic: Price Range. Do you feel price cap is a good thing? Should business owners be allowed to inflate or reduce the price or goods however they want or should it be regulated?

In simple terms, price cap, as the name implies, is a strategy government or an authority uses to control the price of goods and services so consumers are not extorted by sellers. In my school, there was a time when drivers started to extort students. Whenever we complained, they would say fuel is expensive and because we had no choice, we paid the fares they requested. However, when our complaints got to the school authority, they initiated a price cap for cab drivers within the school premises. For example, cab drivers were not allowed to take more than #150 per stop.

Establishing a price cap would go a long way because currently, consumers are being extorted by so many business owners. Unfortunately, we can't do anything about it because it is their business after all and in many countries, there are no rules that guide how they should run their businesses. The quarrel between Verydarkman and Blord made me realize how phone vendors have been extorting their buyers. According to Verydarkman, an iPhone 11 costs about 200k in China. He bought 2 iPhone 11 for #400k plus. Interestingly, here in Nigeria, these vendors sell iPhone for more than 400k. Unless something is wrong with it, they sell it below that price. That means they are making more than #150k per phone.

When they come out to defend themselves, they would say the shipping fee is quite a lot. But that’s just a big fat lie. They make #150 on just one iPhone 11. They make a little above 1 million naira for selling 7 iPhones. That’s quite a lot! The shipping fee is just an excuse for them to extort more.

The price cap will go a long way in keeping these things in check. Of course, no one is saying they should not make profit, but so many business owners take it to the extreme. If business owners are not open to the idea of embracing the price cap system, then they should learn to make profit in a fair way.

Images in this post are mine.

Thanks for reading.