Beautiful, Ice-Cold Capitalism

A couple weeks back, we had the unfortunate experience of having our air conditioning shut off. In the heat of this summer and with a newborn in the house, this was a situation that I wanted to resolve immediately. So I cracked the phonebook and began calling HVAC technicians.

I was pleasantly surprised when calling one particular business to hear that the service technician could be by in about an hour as he was already in the area. True to his word, Jimmy was in our driveway within the hour. Upon arrival, Jimmy revealed himself to be pleasant and professional. It only took a momentary inspection for him to recognize the problem. Within minutes he had quoted a price, replaced the damaged part and successfully activated the unit.

After this service, Jimmy was quick to give me an opportunity to ask questions and find out if I was satisfied with his service. Are you kidding? He not only came out almost immediately, but he was pleasant and successfully fixed the problem....of course I was satisfied! I got to thinking that Jimmy must be some sort of saint to give us this premier treatment!

But after some conversation, I found out that he was simply the owner and operator of his own business. He made money by fixing our air conditioning unit, money that I was happy to give him in exchange for the service. As a result of this exchange, we were both better off. Jimmy made some money, and my family and I were cool again. And knowing that all his future customers must agree to voluntarily exchange for his services, he was eager to do a good job so that we would not only call him in the future, but also recommend him to our friends and family if they were in a similar situation.

So I told him, "Yes Jimmy, I'll certainly recommend you in the future." But not just Jimmy, I'll also recommend the system that provides the incentives for him to do such a good job. So thank you capitalism, not just for the incentive structure that let our air conditioner get fixed so quickly, but for providing the incentives for air conditioning to be invented in the first place.