In the 1980’s, Robert L. Crandall, head of American Airlines, removed one single olive from the salad they served passangers. He thought they wouldn’t notice - and he was right. This removal of the olive saved the company $40,000 a year.1 and began the downfall of Service Capitalism. This was the subtle but profound shift in how business viewed their relationships with customers: from competition through service excellence to a methodical calculation of what could be taken away without prompting customer exodus. The olive was just the beginning. In the decades that followed, this mindset transformed from careful optimization into something vampiric, canabalistic, as companies discovered they could feed not just on garnishes, but on essential services and basic human comforts. The story of modern capitalism is a story of this transformation - from competing to see who could offer more, to how much could be taken away.
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Jan 03 2025All These People Are Vampires - Building the Contra-Economy