Survival of the fittest is a macho term laced with a certain romanticism. Capitalism, in its pure form, is supposed to be a perfect example of a system embodying Darwinism at its core. If you are not proactive at reading the market, too hung up to adapt to changes, too inefficient to beat the economic efficiency curve or too exalted to serve the customer, you ought to be finished, eaten up alive and go belly up.

Then why do we see so much economic inefficiency all around. Why can the big corporations continuously afford to ignore, annoy and even infuriate the customer or why can a small business keep on sustaining extremely unprofessional levels of services. If the customer is really so important then why does he have to listen to weird music for 20 minutes before being hung upon when he calls “customer care”. Why can the phone company keep on putting new, weird and  un-agreed  to charges on your bill and still proclaim “happy to help”, why can the banks keep on applying charges for services as inane as getting an account statement or knowing your account balance, why can the cooking gas company afford to ignore your calls for three days and deliver the gas on fifth while proudly proclaiming they deliver within 24 hours.

A lot of these answers can be found in theoretical economics. You can say cell phone service providers in India are an oligopoly where none is different from the other in terms of service levels, switching costs are high because all of a sudden you don’t want your cell number to change after having it for 7 years and the service is an essential - you can’t go without a cell phone.

However, let’s try to examine the question as to what kind of a task master capitalism is - after all, it is supposed to be the best system known to man to support enterprise, innovation and efficiency and it is as close as a man made system comes to classic Darwinism.

The fundamental assumption of capitalism is that people want to grow, expand and earn more money. They also want to conserve money by paying less if they can for an equal product or service. Statistically, out of multitudes of people, some do aspire high and sustain capitalistic growth.

Now consider a situation where no body aspires for greater growth. No aspirations so the incentive to be innovative, market oriented and efficient becomes irrelevant. The scenario of course seems highly unlikely  because struggle for growth is almost as fundamental, if not just a variant of struggle for life. However, look closely and it is not that unlikely.

No further aspirations means one is satisfied with what one has got and this may happen with a small business as well as a large corporation with equal probability.  Complacency is  not an  endangered species in corporate sector. Moreover, it gets manifested in various forms - it could be an unwillingness to innovate or to go the extra mile for the customer. It can also be manifested in various “not so above board” practices we see all around us (I do not see what other name could you give to various services being included in your cell phone plan without you even knowing it and you being charged). The point is, companies start taking the customers for granted when they think they can afford to do that.

What’s the answer? Well, capitalism can induce only so much efficiency. For the rest, may be a more balanced customer-provider power equation would prove effective. Point is, how do you restore balance to the skewed power equation between a million dollar corporation and individual customers each of whom pays may be a hundred dollars every month for example.

The solution seems to be more and more aware customers. Give feedback to the company fast and strong. Also, share your experiences with others. That’s the only ammunition a customer has, and that’s what can shake the companies off their slumber - the customer can bite too.

The built in mechanisms in capitalism fall flat when somebody is ok with you taking your business elsewhere. But if you includes not just you but hundred others like you, that bite can hurt.

The current problem is, so few of us bite and that too, far too little.