This article appeared on 6th October on “The Guardian”.

Julian Baggini, the journalist, takes cue from the news of Steve Job’s death, in order to propose a reflection about how capitalism is changed.  The career and ideas of Steve Jobs are used to supporting the main thesis:  “capitalism is not perfectly self regulated”.

Jobs’ economical strategy shows  the breakdown of old adage “the consumer is king”; Apple items become popular after they were launched on the market. This mean that people don’t know what they want, and Jobs innovation consists in give people something they don’t know, but they become to want. Innovation can became popular.

But, innovation has a cost. Against the open – source movement, Jobs doesn’t follow the common “race-to-the-bottom” market idea, showing that you could charge a premium price for a premium product. So quality costs, and people can pay for quality.

Quality always depends on the true excellence of producer: only tight control on every producing steps can guarantee the perfect realization of goods.

This is why Apple doesn’t license third-parts producers: “good brands have product of substance behind them”.

The newest idea Jobs has introduced is that only human mind can understand when and what the market need. Even if people in business have been demoted beneath the impersonal market forces, only who can look ahead, can transform a crazy idea in a successful product, as Jobs has done.

To sum up, capitalism is not self-regulated, only human mind can strike market competition, and squeezes what the market still has to offer.